Beat Plastic Pollution

The World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5th every year. This year's theme is to beat plastic pollution. Paper cups are lined with plastic or wax, resulting in microplastic entering our bodies. Desi gulhars or bhaars are eco-friendly alternatives. Other ways to beat plastic pollution include using glass jars, avoiding plastic containers, using tea strainers instead of tea bags, using flowers instead of confetti, and avoiding plastic straws and stirrers. It's important to carry a reusable water bottle while traveling to avoid plastic bottles. Taking care of the environment is crucial for our health and the health of the earth. However, it requires the cooperation of all stakeholders. The World Environment Day was on 5th June. It celebrated every year without fail. This year, beat plastic pollution is the goal. Hi, this is Dr. Amrita and you are listening to the Health Well-Bitch Podcast. Did you know paper cups, though called paper cups, align with plastic or wax to seal them? This is done to prevent liquid from spilling. We are using paper products lined with plastic which results in our body getting a dose of microplastic every time we drink out of them. And what happens when they are disposed? Microplastics again. The solution in this case is a very popular desi jugar of gulhar, our desi disposable cups. They are eco-friendly, pocket-friendly and they look good too. Many restaurants, roadside stalls only use these gulhars or bhaars to use to drink liquids like tea and coffee. I am going to share a few ways to beat plastic pollution, share a story during my travel with my friends and family and what happened when we tried to avoid plastic drinking water bottles. So, these are the few ways I feel that we can easily start to beat plastic pollution from where we are with what we have. Say no to the paper cups, carry your own cup or use a desi gulhar or bhaar. Reuse those glass jars that you have at home from your coffee, tea and other goods like honey that come in glass jars. Don't buy the plastic ones, you can buy the glass jars. You can use these glass jars after the product in them are used up. You can paint them, customize them and make them pretty with labels. It is a perfect summer project for the little ones. Use those acrylic pen markers and you are good to go. Avoid buying plastic containers even if they are a great deal. 100 pieces for 50 rupees. These are deals which are hard to break. As a new mom, 10 years back, I had done just that and when awareness struck, I never bought another one of those. Skip the tea bags, use a pretty tea strainer, maybe even a silver one to make tea drinking really special. At our home, we love drinking tea, the black dajjaling tea or the green tea or even the regular chai. It's always wonderful to share a cup of tea with friends and family and when you have a pretty tea set to pour your tea from, then it makes the entire event even better. You can buy pretty tea strainers from your local market or you can buy them from the golden tip shop in dajjaling or even from gleneries if you are visiting soon. You can also buy online from the everything store. You know which one, right? You should skip the confetti for parties. Use flowers instead. Pick those from your balcony garden, the terrace garden or a regular garden or maybe even buy them. Marigolds are perfect for this. Kids love helping get the petals loose to use as flowers for showers. Plus, they smell great. Don't buy plastic straws and plastic stirrers. Straws are a problem to clean. That's the reason disposable straws came into the picture. Avoid straws as far as possible and let me know if you know about easy to clean options for metal, bamboo or glass straws. I have a glass straw at home and it's not the easiest thing to clean. Carry a reusable bottle for water while traveling. This is a no-brainer for most people, but it's not an easy option. And that's where my story for today comes into the picture in this podcast. Mother earth existed before humans arrived on the scene. Mother earth will exist even after our time. When we talk about earth being in danger, it's not just mother earth you're saving. It's also your life. Life on earth depends on the environment. Our life depends on an environment healthy for us. Human beings need a balanced internal and external environment to thrive. When we don't take care of the environment, we are directly harming our health. The theme for this World Environment Day is Beat Plastic Pollution. While visiting Darjeeling this time for summer holidays, we decided to beat plastic pollution by saying no to plastic bottle drinking water. We decided to accept the bottled RO water instead. But problem arrived in the form of stomach upsets, nausea, vomiting and we spied fungal spores at the bottom of glass drinking water bottles kept on the dining room table of a hotel we were dining in. We decided to go with the regular Bisleri packaged drinking water with a heavy heart. Unfortunate but during travel, if the hotels and restaurants don't ensure healthy clean drinking water, beating plastic pollution is going to be very difficult and an entirely uphill battle. But at the Moosa Jungle Resort in Manas, when we visited in March, we were filling up our water bottles from the Aquaguard water filter. We did not face any stomach upset during our 4 days stay. We did our own refilling, you could see it was a clean filter. The water looked clean, it tasted good and the kids were healthy and so were we. Last year in Sikkim too, the hotel provided us with free filtered water and there was no trouble. I am a doctor knowing all the diseases that poor drinking water can cause with immediate effect. I also know the problems plastic bottles will bring for our health and for generations to come, for the health of the earth and all those who live on it. But when it comes to taking responsibilities, all the stakeholders, private citizens, public entities, businesses and governments need to come together to make this easier for us, to make responsible use of plastic possible. This is our earth, our home, we need to keep it clean and green. Sometimes the immediate action is needed, sometimes a longer term goal is needed. Do what is possible from your end at this time, but take one step every day. That will help. All this month I will be talking about pollution in different forms and how taking care of the environmental pollutions can help us live better, to a healthier you and a healthier world. Thank you for listening to Dr. Amrita on the Health Welfare Podcast.