Leading a plastic-free life

Gurugram Jyoti Raghavan hasn’t used a plastic bin bag for several years now and says she doesn’t need to — the wet waste that the household generates goes into the

Gurugram Jyoti Raghavan hasn’t used a plastic bin bag for several years now and says she doesn’t need to — the wet waste that the household generates goes into the compost pit in her backyard and the family discards the little dry waste they produce directly into the bin.

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Raghavan, who lives in Sector 47, is committed to a plastic-free, zero-waste life and is gradually doing away with all things plastic in her home.

“The kids and I don’t order in as the packaging has lots of plastic. I buy my groceries loose and not in packets. I also carry cloth bags when I buy things,” she said, adding she uses a bamboo toothbrush, carries steel bottles and containers wherever she goes and has done away with washing soap and replaced it with bio-enzymes.

She is not alone. Many residents in the city are attempting to live a plastic-free and sustainable life in the city, considering the impact of plastic pollution on the environment. The country generates around 25,940 tonnes of plastic waste a day, according to a 2017 report by the Central Pollution Control Board, and is struggling to dispose it of. With plastic now ubiquitous, residents are applying the plastic-free manta to the best of their abilities.

Rolly Jain’s journey of recycling and slowly doing away with it started with planting saplings in plastic bottles. Jain, who also is a resident of Sector 47, uses leaves of the turmeric, banana and colocasia plants from her garden to wrap her child’s lunch. “I discarded the use of aluminium foil and plastic wrap many years ago,” she said.

Plastic cutlery and bottles are mostly single-use items, and according to experts, are major pollutants of both the land and oceans. Carrying your own cutlery and boxes is a logical and the easiest way to start living sustainably, according to the people in the city who are doing it.

The ‘3B ka Funda’ movement, started by a group of citizens and is now being followed by many across the country, involves carrying your own bag, box and bottle before leaving home.

“The logic is simple — when you carry your own reusables, you won’t need to accept plastic from vendors,” said Ruchika Sethi, who is leading the movement. She added that many residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) across the city have adopted the ‘funda’. Sethi also recycles whatever plastic her household generates. She said that in the festive season, many residents have started carrying their own boxes when they go to buy sweets from shops.

Trying a plastic-free lifestyle, however, can be challenging, considering the huge dependence on products that come packed in the material. Kanwal Pal Singh, another resident, has replaced pens made of plastic with ink pens and pencils, and plastic toothbrushes with those made of bamboo, among other daily items. He also doesn’t use soap and detergent. He tried doing away with milk packets for some time and bought loose milk, but that didn’t work for long. “My family didn’t prefer the loose milk very much and we switched back to the packets,” he admits, adding getting completely rid of plastic is a work in progress.