Polythene & Plastic: Use It Wisely
Dinuka Jayasinghe
Polythene is being dumped hazardously in socially and environmentally sensitive places like road sides, marshy lands, low lying areas, public places, forest and wild life areas, causing numerous negative environmental impacts such as ground and surface water pollution, air pollution and even deaths (recent Meethotamulla disaster).
Waste collection and disposal play an extremely important role in a country’s cleanliness and sustainability drive, with people’s health and the conservation of resources being the responsibility of every Government.
Plastic is some kind of a superhero when it comes to making our life easier. So much of the objects in our lives are built with plastic, so it’s no surprise that the stuff gets everywhere. We don’t even care about how it will impact the environment though. Single-serve beverages and snacks in plastic packaging are an easy grab-and-go option when you’re on the go. We all know the story when we look around. And how about plastic shopping bags so you don’t have to remember to bring another bag every time you head to the store? Buy it free and throw it on the go. Approximately 20 million shopping bags and 15 million lunch sheets used in Sri Lanka daily. Wherever you dump those polythene will stay as it is for more than 1000 years and killing you slowly. But who cares?
Do we care about our Environment?
It is very sad to say right after the Dalada Perahara it became apparent that there were about 200 tons of garbage near Dalada Maligawa premises. Also it was reported that more than a million plastic bottles were collected from Sri Pada (Adam’s Peak) area which were discarded by pilgrims who had travelled to Sri Pada for past few months. If we can’t protect the sacred places from garbage, how are we going to protect the other places? Even BMICH premises found to be filled with so many garbage after the recently held book fair. Is that the mentality of our so called readers?
These kinds of stupid behaviours have to be changed immediately if we want to move forward as a country.
The Government and us
The Government had planned to reduce polythene usage without even introducing an alternative. Hope the Government had conducted a feasible study before implementing this strategy. Almost everyone complaining the Government and do nothing. My opinion is banning polythene is not necessary if we have the right discipline to use it.
