Dear MEL Topic Readers,
India's trash mountains are a fetid symbol of
the country's plastic problem
Convenience stores, supermarkets, online shopping, and food delivery services. They all create an unprecedented amount of trash, especially
single-use plastics. Environmentally conscious consumers are trying their best to
sort out the trash for proper collection, whether to be recycled, incinerated,
or dumped. So, their houses and communities are kept clean and the residents feel
proud. But even if the trash is properly collected, is it properly handled? Are
the plastic wastes, either sorted or mixed, all recycled properly?
It is estimated that approximately 70% of the
plastic wastes are discarded in India. Large amounts of them are washed down to
the Indian Ocean via the River Ganges. Others were dumped in the landfills with
other biodegradable garbage and hazardous materials.
But don’t just blame on India or China. The
US, Canada, and other developed countries had shipped their plastic wastes along
with other unsorted garbage to China until last year when it was banned and have
been shipping to other southeast Asian countries like Malaysia and the Philippines
until they were recently rejected.
Among three “R”s, reduce, reuse and recycle, the reduction seems the most urgent and essential action needs to be taken decisively
to tackle the plastic waste problem because there is only so much that even
environmentally conscious people can do.
Enjoy reading the article and think if human ingenuity
can someday overcome the disasters caused by human insanity.
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