Protecting the climate and natural resources is a global responsibility of every citizen on this planet. We highly depend on natural resources for our lives to run smoothly and efficiently. It is equally vital for us to give back the planet what we are taking away from it. The shortage of natural resources and overusing them is harming the environment. Dumping the used materials in the environment is causing pollution, making the environment severely harmful for every living thing, including human beings, animals, insects and trees.
An effective way to prevent the environment from pollution and to protect all living things is by practising recycling. Recycling is the process, which involves reusing materials in different ways instead of dumping them inappropriately. Recycling allows us to protect the environment, save our money and show creativity as well.
Materials that you can recycle are plastic, glass, paper, metal and aluminium cans. Waste matter in India after it has been collected is often not appropriately dumped. They are gathered and assembled in few specific areas that stay there for a more prolonged period and spread in public spaces and the water bodies. The waste materials are burnt when they are over piled to free up space to dump more trash. It causes air pollution. Dumping the trashes near water bodies pollutes the water and harms the marine life animals.
It is essential to impose strict laws regarding solid waste management to stop it from creating a mess. India has developed few rules to reduce the usage of plastic usage. Many grocery and lifestyle stores charge extra money for every plastic or paper bag they take for their products purchased.
The practice of recycling can begin at home, and there is no need to wait for any official laws to be enforced. When one individual starts practising it, others will also be encouraged to do so. It may take some time for it to be effective, but it is not impossible.
Following are the advantages of recycling:
- It conserves natural resources
- It saves money
- It prevents pollution (air pollution, water pollution)
- It saves living things from getting harmed
- It reduces global warming
- It makes people aware of the importance of protecting our environment
Indian households have been reusing materials for ages without completely being aware of it. Reusing plastic bottles, bowls, bags, and glass bottles is very popular amongst Indian families. Pollution is not only harming the environment but the living things too.
Following are the consequences of pollution include:
- Health: People are more likely to be facing stress, anxiety, anger and other mental health issues who live in warm and humid weather. Counselling centres/Hospitals/Mental health support organisations should volunteer free sessions with people of those locations. They can host campaigns to promote the issues and take surveys to recognise people being affected and support them.
- Air Pollution: Government should set rules to limit the time duration of industries working to minimise emissions. For example, a factory can operate five days a week from 9 am till 2 pm. For the rest of the working hours, they can work on other parts where emissions are not made.
- Cutting Down Trees/Waste Materials: Recycling should be made mandatory at school/colleges, offices/malls and any other corporate areas to avoid rapid usage of plastics/papers. One should dispose of waste/garbage appropriately according to its materialistic properties. The Government should make guidelines for it.
- Traffic Jam and Human behaviour: Heavy traffic jams in cities like Delhi, Noida, and Mumbai of India make people annoyed and disturbed by waiting for a long time in their transportations. Carpooling can be an efficient way to minimise the number of cars on the road. School/Colleges can set rules for students/staff living nearby to come together that it saves time and reduces transportations on roads as well.
- Spreading awareness: Schools/Colleges/Corporates should promote the Man-Environment interaction to understand the consequences better and make activities like recycling, limiting hours of emissions mandatory so that the knowledge comes into use rather than just learning about the issues.
