By Maitphang Syiem
“There is no such thing as ‘away.’ When we throw anything away, it must go somewhere,” stated Annie Leonard. For a fraction of a second your mind would probably be boggled but the lines clearly speak on what we conventionally perceive about solid waste. We consume things but don’t introspect much because the latter part is always garbage to be chucked out wherever we want. Like the latest slogan, “Ha Ri Lajong, Katba Mon” and all of it will either be littered around with none of us to even own it. The crux of the matter is how we perceive waste which is generated from our daily consumption.
Our attitude towards waste is far from what is expected and the probable reason might be that our “waste” is never ours and we don’t own it post consumption, because it is useless. Now the point of introspection is when we consume things we should also own what is left behind and perhaps think what can be done about it, but that usually never happens. The conventional way is to use and throw. But just spare a thought on the “throw” part. Can we look for an out of the box solution? Just think about it and before you decide you may ponder on these lines “There is nothing as garbage but useful things in the wrong place”-Alex Steffen. Mind-boggling right? How can garbage be useful when it is garbage? Please laugh out loud at this juncture but the point here is that we need to change our attitudes and behavior towards “waste.” Why not think of something at our own local or personal level to transform our own generated waste to something useful which perhaps may benefit our ecology? We may never know what good can come out of it if we change our actions towards it in an unconventional way. “Your Garbage Transformed, is your Gift”-Yehuda Berg.
We discuss forms of pollution and pollution is increasing at an unprecedented rate along with the growing population. This translates to increasing consumerism which also increases the different kinds of wastes. We need to be informed. Scientifically there are two sources of pollution, point source and non-point source and particularly with solid wastes, our households, centers etc are the point sources for the majority of the wastes that is generated and which lands up in landfills. Hence understanding this source is practical for all of us to mitigate the amount of garbage that we generate because if we can locally tackle this at source we are one step ahead in solving the underlying crises of solid waste management.
The other important part for us to understand is also on the carrying capacity of our landfills. For how long can our landfills keep on carrying the load? They have already reached a saturation point. Hence understanding and tackling the source of wastes will reduce the load of our landfills and help them to sustain longer. So the approach is to reduce the waste at source which will lead to reducing the load on them.
Practically speaking, we cannot avoid consumption of goods and products. Human wants and needs are unlimited and as long as we are here we are bound to consume things and generate waste post consumption as we are dwelling in a consumer-driven society. The important part here is how we look deeper into our consumerist lifestyle because this lifestyle will also decide the quantity of waste we produce. Let’s therefore introspect on that and find the best suitable ways and means that will reduce our “waste footprints.” Concerning this crucial subject of discussion and to also take the bull by the horns following the 5R’s (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot (Composting) is imperative for all of us to solve the problem of solid waste. The 5R’s concept was pioneered by a well-known US environmental activist Bea Johnson and ironically it all started from her kitchen right at the point source. That led to a movement and lifestyle called the “zero waste home” and it did work for her. They were able to cut down on waste. The learning here is that if it worked for her, it should probably work for us as well if we try, As stated earlier, we dwell in a consumer driven society and may perhaps not be able to achieve absolute zero waste but we will also not be way behind if we put our heart and soul into this matter. Though it sounds unrealistic it should be an idealistic goal to try and achieve.
Time is changing and the issue of solid waste management is indeed a menace if we do not put our actions and attitudes into a re-engineering process. The issue calls for collective responsibility of every individual, be it young or old. We have to own the problem and take collective steps to solve it. It starts with each one of us to look for unconventional ways and solutions and to seek help if required to solve this persistent problem.
The most important part here is the “Behavioral change”, Information, Education and Communication means educating ourselves and the younger generations to understand waste and how to achieve an idealistic goal of zero waste is imperative. We must all converge around a solution else we will be leaving a bad legacy. Reducing waste at source should be a daily and not a one-time activity. Communities should commit themselves to a near zero waste philosophy. This will solve half of the problem. On this we need to be pro-active and own up the problem and also be accountable for it. Let the controlling authorities do their part; we need to do ours even better as it is a ubiquitous and collective problem.
In this regard concerned citizens should also be aware of the second phase of Swachh Bharat Mission, which is now SBM-U 2.0 which was launched by the Government of India on 1st Oct 2021 with an ultimate vision of achieving garbage free cities. Guidelines and frameworks have been published by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and it is imperative that one should know of this as it is already a major program which will definitely have a holistic impact on waste management. One of the major focus is on “Behaviour Change” which is ultimately the need of the hour. This emanates from “Behavioural Economics Theory” called “Nudge Theory” – a theory well acclaimed, developed and introduced by the Noble Laureate Economist Richard Thaller. We might want to dive deeper in to this. Briefly the theory speaks on active thinking and heuristic process which perhaps may help us take better decisions on reducing “waste footprint” if applied.
To conclude let us remind ourselves of Bob Dylan’s words – Come gather ’round, people/ Wherever you roam/ And admit that the waters/ Around you have grown/ And accept it that soon You’ll be drenched to the bone/ If your time to you is worth savin’/ And you better start swimmin’/ Or you’ll sink like a stone/ For the times they are a-changin’.
(The writer is a Geospatial Technology Expert , [email protected])