Simple tips to reduce carbon foot prints: Pat-3

Minimizing the usage of polythene bags:

Hi friends, disposal of used polythene bags has become a matter of grave concern for authorities because it is neither biodegradable easily nor it can be burnt in the air. Depending upon the density of polythene, it may take many years to centuries to get degraded. As I have mentioned in my earlier blog post, even if we use a polythene carry bag we can reuse it until it becomes useless and finally dispose in a scientific way. More than 80 million metric tons of polythene is being produced every year all over the world and major portion of this huge quantity goes to the production of shopping bags of different qualities and sizes. Since shopping bags are made of low density polythene, they are not strong enough for reuse and thrown unscientifically to dust bins. There are many hazards associated with these bags when mixed with soil such as it arrests or block the entry of rain water below the earth, its toxicity can damage the plants, water as well as soil. Entry of polythene to soil will result in reduction of agricultural yield and reduction in ground water level. In the year 2005, the city of Mumbai was virtually waterlogged due to heavy rain and it was found that choking of drains and sewage by plastic bags was the main reason. As I have mentioned in one of my blog post, I am a disciple of Rishi Prabhakar, founder of Sidha Samadhi Yoga(SSY) and in our daily class we were advised not to use plastic bags for carrying purpose and cloth bags made of old dress were provided to students.

I remember a tragic incident associated with over use of polythene bags which took place few years ago in Kerala state of southern India. One fine morning, one of the temple elephants (owned by the temple for the purpose of temple ceremonies) has become ill and finally died. Unable to find the exact reason for its sudden death, the body was subjected to postmortem and for every bodies surprise there were large number of plastic bags in side its stomach. Pilgrimages who were ignorant about the danger of consuming polythene used to feed fruits and other edible items to elephants along with the plastic bags which ended up with this tragic incident. We are hearing news of banning plastic carry bags by authorities from different parts of the world. In India, Philibit is the first district where use of plastic is banned totally and the credit goes to the then Member of Parliament Smt. Maneka Gandhi, lady who dedicated her life to environmental and animal protection.