Industries thrive on the consumption of natural resources like air, water, land and fossil fuels like petrol, diesel and gas. Industries also cause air, water and chemical pollution. Thus, industries have le us to development as well as to pollution. The problem is worsened with growing numbers of industries.
India is the largest producer of milk in the world. Through various schemes, such as `Milk flood’, `Operation flood,’ `White Revolution,’ we have boosted our milk production to meet the demand of a growing population. We have set up milk producers’ organizations, cooperatives and milk supply centers everywhere so that milk is easily available for consumption.
In every village and city, we have farm animals. However, fodder is scarce in urban areas. As a result, animals including the milk –giving cattle now depend on waste bins for heir food. In our waste bins, we can see all kinds of rubbish from blood ridden bio-medical wasters discarded by hospitals to plastic bags from houses. Segregation of wastes is the need of the hour. Not only should wet waste be segregated from dry waste at homes and other places, we need to immediately stop disposal of hospital waste in the municipal waste from wet waste and use the vegetable waste o feed animals. This will reduce the waste pile in the dump yard by half and at the same time, ensure good health to the animals. Cooked wastes and wasted food could be fed to dogs and pigs in the area. Alternatively, all the wet waste from the kitchen could be put in a clay pot and layered at the top with soil. When this process is continued for some weeks, slowly the contents will turn into fine manure that can be then used to nature the plants at home.
We visit a variety of shops to make our purchases. Of late, every shop habitually packs the items it sells in plastic bags. We ought to make every effort, whenever possible, to take out own bag to buy the things we need. We should convince our shopkeepers to use a cloth or paper bag to pack the goods they sell. Let us get shopkeepers to agree to put up small boards telling customers to bring their own bags, and not to use plastic bags. It is also better to plan properly and buy things at one go, to avoid repeated purchases.
A lot of thins we buy come in wrappers, covers and cartons which can be given away to waste collectors for recycling. If we stack these unused covers and cartons in the attic, they only gather dust and cause many health problems.
Sometimes, people do not make complete use of the things they buy. Let us make a list of things that unnecessarily go into the waste in despite their still being useful.
When we buy medicines, let’s get the chemists to agree to accept unused medicines. By this, we can reduce some of the terrible pollution drug manufacturers unleash these days.
As far possible, avoid the `use and throw’ culture. Buy only those things that can be refused for a long time. These matters should be publicized as part of an environment project.