What if we stopped to think before aiming our used stuff at the dustbin. Will it make our future safer? Ever wondered where the paper boxes some airlines serve snacks in go once the empties get collected back?
Or the shiny aluminium containers... spill-proof, soak-proof, that the Swiggy delivery guys have stacked up in their bags? What happens to the cling film that converts the humble lime halves and mixed pickle into room-service-worthy accompaniments? Or the film on either side of the face shields that are handed out on flights?
Actually, one wonders what happens to the face shields too. Often they are carried through the flight, unopened, hitching a free ride at 35,000 ft from one city to the other, perhaps because wearing it is too much of a bother, or because it could make an interesting gift for a young boy who likes to don mock armour. And the PPE suits. They are another story without a proper ending.
Think too of the millions of aluminium coated packets of chips, and crisps, khatta meetha mixtures and chivda. They hang enticingly from shop fronts not just in the cities and towns, but in the farthest reaches of the country... a marvellous testimony to the marketing departments of their respective companies. But have the manufacturers ever thought of collecting the rubbish their enterprise generates?
Where there are salted snacks there are bottles too. Half litre, 700 ml, one litre and so on. Whether they held water, mineralised, pure or refilled from the nearest tap, colas or fizzies of other hues, they all suffer the same fate of being thrown carelessly away.
Let's move on. To other serious matters. Cotton buds on plastic straws, sold 100 in a plastic tin; paper plates, some with foil lining; plastic cups... (ah do conventions love scattering them like graffiti once empty); paper cups... and earphones that don't work, mobiles that have had their day and can't be updated, thermocol decorations after the Gods have been unseated from their temporary thrones, in fact, the Gods themselves glistening with paint and polish; and wedding setups that convert open grounds into mock palaces... where does it all go? There’s more if one looks further. Tampons, nappies, paper napkins... all the trappings of a life made easier for us.
Time to feel nostalgia for the era of hand-me-down clothes; of saris becoming curtains and then dishrags; of cosmetics made from simple home elements... lamp soot Kajal, and fruit lip colours. Of long lasting, non-disposables in every aspect of daily life.
Time to stop adding to the incredible waste piling up in landfills, creating toxic mountains that burst spontaneously into flame. Of ensuring we do not continue to spawn new cities on the ocean floor made of plastic discards.
For, we do not know it, but it could just be happening. That one day, as from a scene out of a horrific sci-fi film, sea and land will convene to collect all of it in one big humongous pile, and throw it back at us. It may never happen? Well, who thought Covid would!
(The writer is an author & consulting editor at Penguin Random House and can be reached at saran.sathya@gmail.com)