Innovators are lending utensils to reduce plastic pollution in NCR

Ever seen roads littered with plastic plates and spoons after a religious function with meals, and cows chewing on them?Lamented in your head how such charitable events turn into total environmental disasters?

A Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report from 2017 says Delhi produces 408.27 tonnes of plastic waste per day, which is 10.14 per cent of its total municipal solid waste generated daily.

This consists of both PET bottles and PVC products which are salvaged, and thermocol which is not easily recyclable. On being burnt, they release toxic gases like dioxins, furans and styrene which cause cancer and disorders of the endocrine (hormones) and nervous system.

Thankfully, a few innovators amongst us are not just lamenting, but finding unique ways to control plastic utensils or go back to the goodold biodegradable cutlery days. Sameera Satija, a resident of Sector 14, Gurugram, for example, who has opened a free ‘CrockeryBank.’

The lady has bought over thousand pieces of steel plates, bowls, spoons and forks of her own money, and received some as gifts, and lends them to anybody who needs it. The CAG employee told Mail Today, “I got the
idea from several bhandaras and chabeels I saw. While these are great humanitarian efforts, the trail of plastic waste they leave behind are sad. That’s when I purchased few hundred steel cutlery pieces in June and began giving them out.”

“Since then, through Facebook and other social media platforms, my initiative has gotten so much publicity, that now the idea has been replicated in five Gurugram localities ,South City II, DLF Phase I, Blossom II and Sector 67, and it’s growing,” she informed.

Several entrepreneurial minds are experimenting with edible cutlery. Narayana Peesapaty from Hyderabad, for instance, discovered his own ‘millet spoons.’ He makes nutritious forks, soup spoons, dessert spoons, yogurt spoons that even come in different flavours.

Narayana added, “Plastic cutlery being made of petroleum products is very cheap, and any alternative to it will have to struggle economically.” Others are simply trying to go back to natural ways to serve food.

Source : https://www.indiatoday.in