1500 full bags of used plastic...

I know its a topic most of us know about, that we should recycle and its environmental advantages and all other details. However most of us don't do that (including me, until now).

Few days earlier, I noticed that in the apartment complex I live, there is a nice recycling center and few people use it as well. It has separate dumpster for papers, glossy magazines, plastic, cardboard, glass etc.

Inspired by that, I made a separate trash bin in my apartment to collect plastic and paper (I used the trash bin near my study table for paper stuff). In one week, the total amount of plastic generated in my apartment was one full walmart bag. I thought may be I used too much plastic in this week, but it was again the same amount the next week and so on. I was frustrated to see the amount of plastic we use in daily life.

Milk cans, yogurt cans, oil cans, polythene wrapper for refrigerated vegetables, polythene wrapper for cheese, bread, wrapper for candies and chocolates, shampoo bottle, toothbrush, toothpaste tube, cover of clothes, tags with the clothes, plastic bags in which we bring stuff home, and too much more than that. Astonishingly, this is from a family of just two people.

I felt ashamed to see that because I realized that without recycling in my life I have thrown about 1500 full bags of plastic in trash. If you spread that much of plastic, it might cover a whole football field :(. Just multiply this amount by the number of your friends whom you know don't recycle.

I also started collecting cardboard, and I was using lot of that as well. packing cardboard, rolls on which paper towels and tissue papers are wound, box of corn flakes etc. I was not using glass as much (its different after a beer party though).

At this point in time, I can always say that our previous generation did everything to destroy our environment and didn't do much to save it. I would hate to see future generation saying that. I would request all my readers to just think about it and do their small contribution to the earth, environment, society and future generation. Please recycle your waste as much as you can.

Initially it might appear clumsy or confusing to have more than one trash bins for different kinds of waste, but it becomes normal and its worth it.

In India, we used to sell plastic and old papers to "kabadiwaala" which was a good way to recycle, but that's definitely not enough. There are some attempts by local administrative bodies to encourage recycling as well. However, more local bodies need to realize the importance of recycling, and start waste management as is there in USA.

Anurag