There is a real-felt need to go beyond mere tokenism of staging earth-hours now and then to stoke dormant concerns on the world’s increasingly fragile ecology.
Mere gestures will not go far in appeasing nature, that, to quote Tennyson, is becoming “red in tooth and claw”. Proliferation of natural disasters across the world serves as a chilling reminder of dangers arising from tampering with the fragile ecosystem in the name of development. Global warming is just one aspect of the problem, with unsustainable build-up of carbon as the proceeds of unbridled global economic growth and industrialisation. Increased infusion of plastics, much of it non-biodegradable and unrecycled, in IT and other industrial sectors and in day-to-day life poses another existential threat.
Much of the unmanaged plastic and e-waste, particularly of developing economies, end up in landfills or oceans, with alarming repercussions.
In 2019, a whale was washed ashore in the Philippines and died thereafter, with necropsy revealing 40 kg of plastic trash in its stomach. A similar tragedy occurred in Greece in 2021. These incidents portend the looming unmanaged plastic and e-waste threat, requiring concerted action by all stakeholders for optimal recycling to check waste build-up in landfills and oceans. Another dimension of the unmanaged plastic threat is its toxic leaching as microplastic and nanoplastic into farm soil, infiltrating agri-products en route to humans.
In India, while the government needs to formulate more innovative and dynamic strategies to tackle the multi-dimensional problem, the onus is not merely on government or industry to devise solutions.
There is a case for the end-consumer to contribute with steps such as shunning single-use plastics. Additionally, efficient and optimal plastic recycling could substantially reduce energy costs for production.
Regarding e-waste, lifestyle impact of providing and using IT needs to factor both upstream impact of supply and downstream impact of disposal.
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