Plastic bags epitomise the use and throw culture that we have embraced, one that focuses on individual existence superseding our communal well-being. Among a long list of single-use plastic products that pile up in landfills and pollute our soil and water; plastic bags may be the most visible and vilified. It must have seen the most number of campaigns launched against it, a poster child of environmental movements, and yet it refuses to go away. The fallout of the rampant use of plastics is highly evident in our mountains, with choked drains and waterways leading to innumerable life-taking landslides, agricultural fields getting clogged and wildlife getting seriously impacted. Plastic litter is also widespread in the mountains and is impossible to retrieve.  

Many state governments and local authorities have notified complete bans on plastic carry bags but almost all have failed in implementation. What does this inability to stop plastic bag use then say about the mountain states’ will and ability to tackle the plastic crisis?

On Plastic Bag Free Day, 3 July, we reflect on mountain states’ actions in responding to the plastic crisis. How effective have plastic bag bans been, what does it mean for the vision of single-use plastic eradication in the country, and the possible pathways to progress towards single-use plastic-free Himalaya?

An online survey on plastic bag bans and their effectiveness across the Indian Himalaya Region was undertaken by the Zero Waste Himalaya and Integrated Mountain Initiative with 315 responses representing Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and UTs of Ladakh and J&K. 

The findings reveal that a very high 82% of respondents were aware of a plastic bag ban in their region with awareness higher in Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, and Mizoram. Yet, the responses highlighting the short-lived or partial effectiveness of the ban across all regions are not encouraging. Only 19% mentioned the high effectiveness of bans, 35% felt bans were not effective at all while 31% mentioned they were effective only for some time. Plastic bags are still in use in all types of markets, from grocery stores to local vegetable markets, to larger supermarket stores as enumerated by the responses.

Source * – Notification for banning, manufacture, use, sale, import, and handling of single-use products. (Parliamentary Response from MoEFCC – 12/2/21). Does not represent data from the district or local bodies
 ** Study on status of plastic bag bans, 2021

The Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016 has prescribed a minimum thickness for plastic bags with only 50 microns bags or more being allowed (now proposed to be increased to 120 microns). But the survey has revealed that thin plastic bags of less than 50 microns are still pervasive with 52% of respondents indicating this.

Increased use of non-woven polypropylene (PP) bags, the new avatar of plastic bags which looks like cloth were also reported in the survey. Sikkim and Tripura had a higher number indicating the use of the PP bags. Sikkim’s plastic bag ban is perhaps the oldest, coming into effect way back in 1998 with strict enforcement for some years. The ban came about in response to choked drains that resulted in landslides and deaths. However, the use of polypropylene bags flooding the market in recent years has made the ban ineffective, and the Sikkim Government is considering the inclusion of the non-woven pp bag under the plastic bag ban. 

The black garbage bag has seen rapid escalation and indiscriminate use mainly among hotels and restaurants. The opaque nature of these bags is a deterrent to segregation of waste and biodegradables have poor chances of decomposing.

A new line of bags labeled as biodegradable, compostable, oxo-biodegradable, etc. is the latest addition to the plastic bag alternatives. The use of these types of plastic bags was represented in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Tripura, and J & K responses. Promoted as the ‘greener’ alternative, they are at times more problematic as some of these are just plastic with additives that accelerate the disintegration into microplastics. Compostable claims made are also false, as our landfills where these bags invariably end up, do not provide adequate conditions to biodegrade. CPCB’s stamp of authority on some of these bags is not helping the cause and there is a serious need to relook at such approvals.

Charging for plastic bags is shown to be a good deterrent and even though the rules are explicit on charge for use, 45% of respondents mentioned there were no charges.

Beyond bags and bans: The big picture

Bans on plastic bags have been ineffective in the Indian Himalayan Region and the survey reiterates that they are still rampantly used. A Toxics Link report of 2014 has stated that ‘Ban’ is just one part of the larger solution and in isolation is not as effective as it was thought to be.” Most bans have been promulgated without long-term vision and people’s participation, clarity in implementation procedures, and institutional capacities to vigorously and continuously monitor the ban.

The measure of the success of the ban lies in its execution and citizens need to hold their governments accountable. Institutions have to diligently work towards the implementation of the notifications with a long-term vision and action.

Globally, awareness of plastic pollution and specifically single-use plastics have gained great momentum with countries and cities actively working to turn the tide against the use and throw culture. The debate is no longer only around plastic bags, but much expanded, one that encompasses all single-use plastics and questions single-use.

Half of the plastic ever manufactured has been produced in the past 15 years and over 50% of plastic produced today goes into making single-use plastic (What a Waste 2018). The fossil fuel industry still plans to increase its plastic production by 40% over the next decade. Finite resources being designed into products that are used briefly and trashed instantaneously is simply not sustainable, least of all for a product that pollutes throughout its life cycle.

While the visible and immediate impacts of plastic pollution have become everyday conversations, a deeper crisis of microplastics formed by the breakdown of plastics is also unfolding. Found in the rain, water, soil, salt, and human placenta, micro-plastic is all-pervasive and a serious threat to human and planetary wellbeing.

A Reuse Revolution in the mountains

On August 15, 2019, Prime Minister Modi declared that India would be free from single-use plastics by 2022. This vision can be made possible only by bringing in a reuse revolution to replace all single-use plastics and open up avenues for local groups to engage through green skills and services.

There is a powerful message conveyed through the simple act of carrying your own reusable bag. It is a message that rejects the use and throws mindset while embracing a sustainable lifestyle choice of reuse. Plastic bag-free day is an opportune moment to talk about reuse and reflect on our lifestyles to take steps towards a plastic pollution-free planet. It is an action that changes the narrative in redress of the waste crisis by not producing waste in the first place.

But for change to happen, we need to do much much more. Multitudes of people need to embrace the reuse revolution for our individual actions to add up to a larger whole. People in positions of power and influence must lead by example for others to emulate.

Plastic pollution is a real crisis. This needs to be recognized by the Governments and Local Bodies through policy strengthening and implementation with the strong will, commitment, and urgency that this crisis demands. 

Plastic bag eradication is the stepping stone to single use plastic eradication in the mountains.

Writes: Roshan Rai, Priyadarshinee Shrestha, Rajendra P Gurung. They are core members of the Zero Waste Himalaya platform that works on the issue of waste in the mountains. They are also active members of the Integrated Mountain Initiative.

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For long, ideas of “sustainability” and “Zero waste” were detested and limited to either policy documents or among the academicians and think tanks. The rising consciousness among the civil society has helped these terms gain much extensive appeal; so much so that Zero waste has become a popular cultural movement, a trend and a fashion statement in itself. Zero waste is not a process but a goal, the goal to reach a state where we eliminate waste management by eliminating waste itself. What a layperson would call “waste” is a resource for a zero-waste practitioner. In simple words, conserve and recover everything and not to discard any valuable resource.

From the constrained space of hefty lexicons in books to the popularity of #ZeroWaste on Instagram, the idea of Zero waste has come a long way. The term Zero waste in its present connotation was arguably first used by Dr Paul Palmer who founded Zero Waste Systems Inc in 1974, a time several decades ahead of Gandhi. Noted historian, Ramachandran Guha asserts that one can either hate Gandhi or love Gandhi but cannot ignore Gandhi; I would argue that it would be a fallacy to ignore Gandhian values and practices on the environment. 

Zero-waste philosophy lays great importance on the need to endorse local products and economy; they complement Gandhi’s idea of Swadeshi. Though one may argue that more than an environmental context, Swadeshi holds political significance,  however, Gandhi took an anti-industrialization stance and called Swadeshi as the “economy of nature”. Swadeshi movement has relevance beyond the politics of Indian Independence and held the overarching aim to challenge the monopoly of the market and reclaim the ownership of resources by the community.

We can further argue that when Gandhi preaches against human greed and materialism, he happens to shares an ideological similarity with Zero waste philosophy.

In pursuits of spiritual liberation, Gandhi led a life of an ascetic; he abandoned all worldly pleasures and refused any materialistic consumption. There have been four prominent instances of his experiment with sustainable living; Phoenix settlement in Natal, Tolstoy farm, Sabarmati Ashram and Sevagram in Maharashtra. These ashrams and community livings were places where Gandhi blended ideas of sustainable food production with the natural ecosystem, a practice which is now known as “permaculture”.

Gandhi first practised community living in his Phoenix settlement. With the aim of self-dependency, he promoted garden farming and started growing his food. It was in Phoenix settlement where Gandhi and his German comrade Kallenbach explored the viability of agroforest and got indulged in spreading community awareness on venomous snakes. Further, Tolstoy Farm also saw the practice of conservation values such as minimal living, scavenging and rainwater harvesting.  It was in Tolstoy farm where Gandhi first started making his chappals and reused papers to make envelopes. In India, Sabarmati Ashram was the epicentre of Gandhi’s sustainable practices, he practised spinning and made khadi to promote indigenous ideas. He also gravitated the manuring practice of rotting and composting the leftovers. It was in Sabarmati Ashram, Gandhi preached sustainability to the masses and making it a popular movement.

If Sabarmati was the seedbed of sustainability ideas then Sevagram was the plantation site; for he implemented the vast array of sustainable practices in Sevagram. Swatch Bharat Abhiyan got popularized as late at 2014 however it is interesting to note that Gandhi had long recognized the need for public hygiene. It was in Sevagram where he first preached the importance of community hygiene and sanitation practices to the villagers, he fervently preached against public urination. Sevagram became an experimental village in many sense. Sevagram became the space for Gandhi’s explorations with mud houses(against the idea of concretization, which was gaining wider adoption). He further helped set up the handloom enterprise and most importantly conceptualized  Sarvodaya, through his philosophy of Sarvodaya, Gandhi attempted to bind the world under “ecological citizenship” and insisted on subsistence living. This idea of Refusal is another pivotal proposition of Zero-waste philosophy.

Gandhi was very mindful in blending ecological values with ethics and politics and stands as a tall political figure who treated the masses as pivotal allies of change. Gandhi repeatedly emphasized on Grassroot awakening and finding an alternative model of development. Zero waste movement is a grass-roots movement which seeks to challenge the hegemonic authority of capitalist forces; it seeks support from all societal spectrum. Zero waste movements can look up to Gandhian Philosophies to further extend their purview. Although Gandhi didn’t give a structured model of zero-waste, interlinking his philosophies and way of life would shed various parallels between him and the modern Zero-waste lifestyle.  Gandhi’s ecological sensibility harboured the ideals of sustainability and Zero waste. Though Gandhi did not formally write a Zero waste doctrine, we can safely conclude that his life was one. His everyday practices, his political philosophy, his preaching, his eating habits, his sense of fashion – all synced with the ideas of Zero Waste.  Much ahead of his time, Gandhi was a man who followed a Zero-waste lifestyle.

Writes: Abhimanyu Chettri, a student of Developmental Studies at IIT-Hyderabad

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The speakers at the event unanimously called for the plastic industry to take responsibility for their packaging waste, instead of blaming consumers. It was agreed that the Indian government must enforce stringent Extended Producer responsibility (EPR) rules to ensure that plastic producers and brand owners take back their plastic waste instead of shifting the blame to the consumers and costs to the local authorities.

A new report from The Changing Markets Foundation that reveals how, behind a veil of nice-sounding initiatives and commitments to address the plastics crisis – the plastics industry, consumer brands, and retailers have obstructed and undermined proven legislative solutions to the crisis for decades.

The report reveals how plastic producers and brand owners like Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Mars Incorporated, Mondelēz International, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Perfetti Van Melle, Procter & Gamble, and Unilever who have a joint plastic footprint of almost 10 million tonnes per year, lobby at every level to fight against proven solutions to solve the plastics crisis, which would require them to fully step up their responsibility and take on the true costs of plastic pollution. Instead, they use distraction tactics, which are designed to make people think real change is happening or that responsibility for the problem lies elsewhere.

Nusa Urbancic, Campaigns Director at the Changing Markets Foundation, said: “This report exposes the two-faced hypocrisy of plastic polluters, which claim to be committed to solutions, but at the same time use a host of dirty tricks to ensure that they can continue pumping out cheap, disposable plastic, polluting the planet at a devastating rate. Real solutions, such as mandatory collection of packaging, policies to increase reuse and phase out certain problematic plastic types or products, rarely feature in the voluntary approach and are fiercely fought against if proposed by policy-makers.”

Plastic is pouring out into the natural world at a rate of 8 million tonnes a year, or one garbage truck per minute, and production has skyrocketed, with half of all plastics ever made having been produced since 2005. Production is expected to double again in the next 10 –15 years.

Mr. P. D. Rai, former Member of Parliament from Sikkim said :
“In the Himalayas, the plastic crisis is all-pervading despite the best efforts of the state governments and local Panchayats to ban all plastics. Extended Producer Responsibility, by which companies take back their packaging is the ultimate solution but there must be disincentives and penalties to successfully enforce such laws.”

Ms. Priyadarshinee Shrestha, Zero Waste Himalaya and Secretary of Integrated Mountain Initiative said, “The existing and proposed waste management rules are one size fits all, they do not recognise the fragility of mountains or the ecosystem services they provide. We urgently need to change the narrative from consumer behaviour to producer responsibility. Efforts taken by the corporations to reach their problematic products to remote corners should be matched by efforts to take them back or not make it at all.”

Shibu K N, India Coordinator of GAIA- Asia Pacific, said, “In India, the proposed Uniform Framework for Extended Producer Responsibility (under Plastic waste management rules, 2016) has been formulated with inputs from industry associations to protect their business interests and profits, there was no consultation whatsoever either from State governments or local governments. It is unfortunate to see there is no concrete measures to reduce the use of plastics or safe recovery of plastics.”

Talking Trash report has shown that voluntary initiatives and commitments by the industry rarely work and are in fact used across the world to undermine legislation.

For this reason, policymakers should adopt progressive legislation, built on the following key elements:

1. The Plastic Waste Rules 2016 has clear and time-bound commitments on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) which have still not been met despite the lapse of the prescribed deadlines and directions by the National Green Tribunal. The government needs to ensure that producers/brand owners meet their obligations under the rules at the earliest.
2. Develop a binding national packaging policy with timelines and targets.
3. Pass legislation aimed at phasing out of harmful chemicals used in packaging plastics such as BFRs, BPAs, Phthalates, Lead etc.
4. Reverse the 2018 amendment to the plastic waste management rules and reintroduce the 2-year phase-out deadline on multi-layered plastics.
5. Add EPR cess to plastic packaged products to promote non-plastic alternatives and reduce tax tariff for plastic products maintaining a stipulated percentage of recycled content.
6. The 2018 amendment to the plastic waste rules is a regressive step as it promotes false solutions such as mass incineration, cement kiln co-incineration and plastic roads in the guise of recycling. The government should remove these practices from the scope of recycling.
7. Implement minimum recycled-content targets in the production of packaging and containers of at least 50% for beverage containers and at least 30% for other items, as a starting point. This creates a market for effective plastic recycling and maintains plastic in a closed loop without downcycling the material.
8. Central or state governments should consider a tax on virgin plastic, which ensures the use of recycled plastic is incentivized over virgin plastic. This should be accompanied with a clear position on the use of alternative materials, such as bio-based, biodegradable and compostable plastic, with justifications for what is – and what is not – good use of these materials.
9. Introduce bans on unnecessary or harmful plastic materials, such as PVC and polystyrene.
10. Prioritise reusable alternatives and act to avoid regrettable substitutions – for example, replacing single-use plastic with other single-use materials, such as bio-based, biodegradable or compostable plastic – which do not fix pollution problems and may also lead to other environmental problems.
11. Indian urban local bodies should support the Zero Waste Cities approach by creating and implementing systems that continuously intend to phase out waste – not by incinerating, landfilling or exporting it, but instead by not generating waste in the first place.
12. India could spearhead the establishment of an intergovernmental negotiating committee at the United Nations Environment Assembly to negotiate a dedicated global agreement – a Convention on Plastic Pollution – that eliminates plastic discharges into the environment while also promoting a safe circular economy for plastics; one that addresses the full life cycle of plastics, from production and design to prevention and waste management.

You can download the full report of the event at https://talking-trash.com or at https://changingmarkets.org/portfolio/talking-trash/

India Case study can be downloaded here: https://talking-trash.com/case-study/india/

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The dumping chute is where we officially dump our waste in Darjeeling and the dumping chute burns around this time of the year when the weather goes sunny and air extremely dry. A quick scan of my old photos of the dump burning dates back to 18 December 2010 so it is safe to say that the chute has been burning off and on for at least the past 10 years. The implications of the chute burning, where our unsegregated waste is dumped are that the air we breathe in Darjeeling is toxic (and here we are telling others about the purity of our air in the Himalaya and genuinely believing it too). With the lay of the land, when the chute burns, the smoke travels up and spreads around the major part of the southwestern side of Darjeeling. This is where we have our major markets and residential areas in Darjeeling. This is instant karma of Kaliyug for the year-long dumping of our waste downhill contaminating water and soil of people living downstream. So why talk of air pollution elsewhere when the air we breathe in Darjeeling can be seen, smelt and is incredibly poisonous. Incidentally this year, in the evenings the smoke is drifting down the valley and also the fire has been smouldering through the night too which would not happen in the previous years.  Methane is generated with the pressure that comes from the weight of the bio-degradable waste pile up, which then burst into flames. In these flames then burn all types of waste including plastics giving off toxic fumes of dioxins, furans and other gases that contribute to cancer, endocrine disruption, asthma, allergy to name a few.

The smoke that is covering our major part of Darjeeling town is a manifestation of our short-sightedness and lack of willingness to address the issue of waste. Waste has dramatically increased in quantum as well as changed in type with increased consumerism and complex plastic packaging. It is also a reflection of how we view waste as every jhora or waterway is a dumping space; ask people who live downstream as to what happens to the stream when the monsoon breaks. This year Pandam Khola burst its seams with plastic and raw sewage destroying a bridge and cutting off Dabaipani and Yangkhoo from town for a week.

We still believe that rolling our waste downhill is managing it and likewise burning waste makes it magically go away. In these past years, There has been global recognition that waste does not go away, it remains on our planet polluting our soil, water and air making our living spaces hazardous, toxic and poisonous. What then is our future as a species when our own lifestyle is our undoing?

The smoke that covers the town is a wake-up call for all of us. A wake-up call to dramatically change our relationship with waste. We need to go beyond the dustbin, broom, rolling down the hill and burning narrative. We need to recognize that the many types of waste like multilayered plastic that we generate has no technological solutions so we have to reduce it and demand of the companies who produce and use it to take responsibility of their waste, take it back or find sustainable material to replace them. We also need to recognize that a large portion of what comes in multilayered plastic is junk food and drinks, high in sugar, salt and preservatives that are extremely harmful to our wellbeing.

As a community of Darjeeling, we need to segregate at the source. Solid Waste Management Rules mandates segregation of waste at source. This is the only way where we can enable maximum material recovery and proper linkage to whatever limited recycling possibilities we have. We need to stop sending food waste to the landfill, period. Either link it to animal feed or compost at home or at the community level. 60 to 70% of waste will be managed at source if we compost. There are a plethora of composting possibilities available, what is needed is people and communities to take it up

Different sources of food and bio-degradable waste has to be addressed individually based on quantum and type, for example, hotels, restaurants, vegetable, fish and meat market waste have to be managed separately as well as levied in scale. The solid waste management rules also mandate that bulk generators take responsibility for their own waste.

While we have made a beginning with the door to door collection and removed the problem from our doorstep but the fire at the chute shows that the problem has just shifted and piled up. With the efficient door to door collection of waste, in garbage bags, we have ensured unsegregated waste pileup as never before. This pile-up was waiting for the right conditions to flare up and prove that it has not gone away. So segregation at source is the next step after door to door collection for us to manage our waste. Only with segregation at source can we efficiently compost and recycle.

There is always this challenge when we talk of reduction of multilayered plastic but what is really easy is to give up the plastic bag, plastic bottled water, plastic, styrofoam, thermocol cutlery. Imagine if everyone in Darjeeling gave up these plastic items. Imagine if every event: birth, marriage, death, meeting, marathon, seminar, religious programmes gave up these plastic items. And it is not difficult, these items came into Darjeeling in the last 10 years or so only and our lives were getting on fine without them too. This is the mindset change we need to bring in to manage our waste. Individuals, families, samaj, religious, political, educational, cultural organizations and institutions giving up these plastic items are what will make Darjeeling clean.

The essential shift in mindset begins with me saying I am responsible for my waste. The shift is to recognize the extreme limitations of the broom and the dustbin. The shift is to reduce my waste, segregate my waste and compost. We have to take the decision to stop using single-use plastics as an individual and community and take every step to reduce our waste to the landfill. Decentralised management is the only efficient way of managing waste as by the time it reaches the chute it has already become unmanageable. 

We need a clear road map with incremental steps of reducing our load at the chute, composting at source and efficient linkage to recycling. We need to take bold steps with policies and bylaws and commit to stop single-use plastic. We need to demand of companies to stop polluting our town and take responsibility for their waste that has no solution. We need to start now so that these photos of the burning chute becomes history and Darjeeling truly becomes clean and truly Swachh.

Writes: Roshan P Rai. He works with DLR Prerna and is a member of Zero Waste Himalaya.

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On the afternoon of 14 August 2019, we were at Darjeeling’s dumping site locally known as the ‘chute’ situated right below the south-west part of town, the supposed resting place of all the trash that was collected from every corner of the town and rolled down the hillside in a true out of sight out of mind fashion. The cemented projection to aid the rolling down the hill process, that gave the chute its name had long since broken away. Peering down from the edge, the colourful trash spread a long way down, the lowermost end disappearing into the dissipating fog, making it seem endless. Down below crows picked on the rotting part of the garbage, styrofoam boxes lay scattered. The steep incline of the hill made it difficult to judge how far down the waste rolled, or how deep.

Raw sewage flowed out of a large underground pipe that opened a little below the edge pouring the contents out into the open, where it mixed with the water flow that washed the trash down, making the chute a large open drain, a scar on the landscape. Unlike other dumping sites, Darjeeling chute’s intersection with sewage lines made the situation even more complex. While most of us covered our noses unable to bear the stench, contiguous to the chute, a colony of families went about their everyday lives.

Once the trucks were in position, the workers, stony-faced carried out their task in a nonchalant manner. No gloves, no masks, no boots to offer any level of protection from the dangers that lay in handling the mixed waste. From the trucks, plastic boards that had announced a recent SALE! in bright red colours tumbled down by the dozens, styrofoam packaging, plastic packaging, plastic bottles, tin cans, glass, leftover food, rotting vegetables, used sanitary napkins and diapers, all. Another layer of trash was added to the existing one, where most would remain for a long time.

‘There is no such thing as away!’ we had repeated this quote by Annie Leonard over and over in all our presentations to those who chose to listen to us. “When we throw anything away, it has to go somewhere”. At the dumping site in Darjeeling, this line took on a whole new meaning and relevance like no place else before. We were at that ‘somewhere’ and it was not far away, not for people who lived around it.

This place in Darjeeling laid thick with layers upon layers of waste exemplified everything that was wrong with our society, our systems and our current lifestyles. Our waste had travelled out of our houses conveniently invading spaces of those who had no voice to protest, being handled by those who had no choice, polluting our water, soil and air endlessly. While we are blinded by countless sales and discounts into buying more and more, while the glitter and glamour of false ads push us to own more stuff than we need, we remain oblivious to the larger picture of where the stuff we bought is coming from and where they end up eventually. The convenience of the use and throw culture we have readily embraced comes at a huge environmental cost that is largely ignored. Our societies turned into big garbage manufacturing units with no conscience. This needs to be set right and it needs to happen at many levels.

Our visit to the dumping chute was as part of the Plastic Freedom Challenge that Zero Waste Himalaya organises for a week from August 8 – 15, a campaign calling on people to be free from plastics during the Independence Week. To drive home the message about the urgent need of reducing our waste footprint, we were there with a group of college students to see firsthand the waste situation and for the understanding to sink in. Similar trips to Gangtok’s landfill site and Mirik’s dump yards have been eye-opening experiences in the past.

Very few who visit these places remain unmoved when faced with the truth of the waste trail, the mess, the stink, the flies, the pollution, most importantly the callousness of it all. Many are prompted into action, to bring changes at their own level- the circle of influence that is very much in their control. For change always begins at an individual level, and we can set things right by being more mindful about how we live, what we buy and how we buy, and connect the dots that what we buy is eventually what we throw.

But will individuals making the right choices ever be enough to bring a difference when the overall problem is so humongous? This is one question that a lot of us grapple with. For people who say yes, they say so with the hope that these individual efforts shall ripple to influence more people into taking positive actions, and all the positive actions will add to a larger whole eventually. Teachers influence their students, students their circle of friends and families, schools, organisations and samajs adopt plastic-free practices, all of these actions matter and bit by bit it will surely add up.

However there’s increasing additional opinion that responding solely through individual and community actions in the face of such an enormous challenge is an exercise in futility, and there is greater need to work towards systemic changes and increased producer responsibility. We could not agree more. The world has undergone a sea change in terms of production and consumption; we are using up way too much stuff and disposing them at a faster rate than ever before. Local authorities have to respond to this change and get their act together by moving away from the age-old practice of collect, transport and dump of managing waste. These are no longer sustainable options. Improved waste management systems that are grounded on principles of decentralisation, waste reduction and maximum recovery, environmental sustainability and social justice is the need of the hour. In this changing scenario, the willingness and the motivation of the local bodies to address the problem is paramount.

Research says more than 40 per cent of all plastic goes into making single-use items, most of which are non-recyclable in nature and therefore with no solutions at the end of their use. In other words, companies are simply turning non-renewable fossil fuel into the trash (usually with unhealthy junk food in between). This is the main reason why our landfills and dump yards are overflowing with plastic waste.

Who will hold these companies to account for all the plastic trash that they have been constantly dumping on us? The obvious answer here would be to look towards the Government, that they should frame adequate policies to address this issue, but the alternate answer would be, to begin with, oneself, which brings us back to the debate on whether individual contribution matters. The power of the individual lies not only in carrying out popular messages such as carrying one’s own bags and reusable bottles, refusing plastic straws and plastic cups, but also in calling out companies, demanding for change, and boycotting products that are excessively plastic packaged. ‘Stop buying trash and the companies will stop making trash’, is a common refrain among the zero waste fraternity.

Beyond this, the power of the individual and community also needs to be harnessed for taking stronger stands, and our efforts geared towards holding local bodies accountable for adopting practices and systems that are designed for sustainable waste management in the long run.

At a policy level, systemic change and producer responsibility are embedded in the Solid Waste Management Rules and Plastic Waste Management Rules of 2016, and though there might be some grey areas, for many aspects the rules lay it down bare in black and white. It mandates segregation of waste at source at all levels, it addresses bulk generators such as hotels and big businesses, has a strong polluter pays principle, empowers local bodies to frame their own bylaws, talks of social justice and integration of the informal network of waste workers, along with many other provisions that Local Bodies, both urban and rural can use to improve the current waste management situations.

However even after 3 years of notification of the rules, most states have performed very poorly on its implementation, so much so that this poor performance has prompted the National Green Tribunal to summon many states (Sikkim and West Bengal included) reprimanding them with clear instructions and deadlines till when they have to be compliant with the rules. By when will Darjeeling and Kalimpong be compliant with the rules? What will it take to get us there?

Back at the Darjeeling dumping chute, a slight drizzle had begun. Two more truckloads of garbage had arrived after the first two had left. Around 50 or more odd trucks transport Darjeeling’s waste throughout the day, we were informed. Workers sifted through the trash with their bare hands. “It’s a challenging task to keep Darjeeling clean, but the well being of people who make it possible has never been of concern to anyone,” they said. Most of the waste was rolled down the hill but a tiny bit of PET and metal that had some recycling value were recovered. The state of mixed waste made segregation and recovery a tedious task. As we watched them, we could not help but think what a world of difference a simple effort at segregating our waste to keep the recyclables separate would make for the workers.

Before we left, in a huddle we shared in one word how the dumping chute made us feel. Shocked, disgusting, the students shared. Ashamed and guilty were two others. The bright red boards announcing SALE! were soon covered by the new layer of waste. Slowly we made our way up to town as the fog covered the dumping chute and all that lay beneath it.

Writes: Priya Shrestha, Zero Waste Himalaya

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The Himalayan Cleanup (THC) is an annual event conducted on May 26 across the Himalayan states of India by the Integrated Mountain Initiative and Zero Waste Himalaya. It was initiated in 2018 in conjunction with the ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ theme of World Environment Day. The main objective of the cleanup is to bring attention the problem of waste in the mountains, specifically single use plastic waste.

In 2018, the Himalayan Cleanup cleaned up 250+ sites from the 12 Himalayan States, with participation of 15000+ volunteers mobilised by more than 200 organisations. It brought to fore the issue of waste in the mountains at the local, national and international level, through a day dedicated to cleaning up our mountains and understanding what is causing the mess. It highlighted the need for a mountain lens to waste management. ‘It is just a beginning to know what’s in our waste and then reflect on how to reduce them”(Deependra Sunar WWF India)

With the success of THC 2018; the solidarity and volunteerism across the 12 Himalayan States of India (IHR) and the focus it brought on waste, the cleanup was continued on May 26 across the IHR. This year the cleanup was organised across 10 Himalayan states with more 90 sites being cleaned up by around 80 organisations who mobilised around 5500 volunteers on May 25 – 26, 2019.

Important sites that were cleaned up on the day were the Pangong Tso Lake in Leh (which at an altitude of 4,350 metres was the highest site cleaned), Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand, Seven Sisters Waterfall and Tashi View Point in Sikkim along with many others towns and villages in Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. 

Tiger Hill, 8 Mile Khola, Mall Road and Mahakal Dara, Camellia School to TV tower, Railwayline, Kurseong, Lanku Valley, Kalimpong Municipality, Gorubathan were the major cleanup sites in Darjeeling and Kalimpong.

“The Himalayan Cleanup this year opened our eyes to the enormity of the waste problem that has engulfed our beloved hills of Darjeeling. We realised that it is a difficult and steep climb uphill but our experiment and experience this year of building synergy with the community showed us that it is possible indeed to solve the problem. We are mountain folks after all and overcoming adversity and climbing uphill is ingrained in all of us” Utsow Pradhan, Tieedi, Save 8 Mile Khola campaign.

The cleanup was organised following uniform protocols of conducting a waste and a brand audit after proper segregation of the collected waste. The main categories were PET bottles (water/ soft drink bottles/ oil), Multilayered plastic (chips/ biscuits/sweets/shampoo/gutka), TetraPak cartons (juice,milk,lassi), Other plastic items (shampoo jars/buckets/ containers), Single use plastic (plastic bags/straw/ plastic spoons/ plates/ styrofoam cups and plates), Glass bottles, Tins/ Cans and other metal items, Paper, Cloth/ Textiles, Others. The different categories of waste were then counted by numbers and also weighed separately. Brand audit was conducted for the branded plastic items, as the top polluting companies emerged during the cleanup, volunteers also took pictures of those waste and post on social media tagging the companies.

For disposal of the waste, all recyclables were given for recycling to the scrap dealers, and support from the Governments, Local bodies were sought for transport of the ultimate discards of the unsegregated waste to the nearest dumping site. Some resorted to make eco-bricks of multilayered plastic collected since there is no existing solution as yet. The Himalayan cleanup was a zero waste event where no single use bottled water and packaged food was consumed by the volunteers.

The Himalayan level data generated forms valuable inputs to any policy level exercise and towards advocating for extended producer responsibility with companies whose products create maximum waste in the mountains.

The cleanup provided space for participants to get their hands dirty and reflect on the challenges of existing consumption patterns and waste so that they move towards sustainable lifestyles. With the campaign being conducted simultaneously across the mountain states, it generates enough participation and publicity to continue bringing the mountain’s waste issues to the forefront of the nation’s attention as well as influence community and local bodies waste management practices towards sustainability.  

“While auditing, had a sense of guilt realising how much we are adding to the plastic waste…infact our kids have vowed not to chew gum from now onwards” Bibaychana Sharma, Himali Boarding School Kurseong.

The data from the cleanup shall be compiled at a Himalayan level to generate an understanding on the types of plastic waste that are polluting the mountains, which should lead to improved and sustainable waste management solutions in the long run.

Multilayered Plastic, PET Bottles, TetraPack and single use plastic topped the waste audit in the Darjeeling and Kalimpong Himalaya. The Tiger Hill cleanup hosted by Scavengers, and Mahakal Dara cleanup hosted by Zero Waste Himalaya brought about plastic waste that are used for religious purposes. This plastic waste at religious sites have been a recent phenomenon and needs to have specific solutions designed for it. There needs to be a comprehensive planning and action around it with the involvement of all the stakeholders.

Scavengers, Anugyalaya DDSSS, Eco Club,Panchabatti HS School, Shelpu, Mount Carmel School, Kalimpong Municipality, Himali Boarding School Nature Club, Loreto Convent, Camellia School, Gyanoday Niketan, West Point School Darjeeling, Sai Sundaram School, Dilaram, GreenHill English School, Salesian College, Sonada, Gaun Chemek Saamaj, Vineeta Gram Samaj, Sai Samiti Ward No 9, Mukh Band Kam Suru, OKC Monastery, Sinchel Mandir Committee, Congress Primary School, MTB, Ghoom Degree College, Southfield College, ATREE, WWF India and DLR Prerna, Reyso, Earth and Home were the participating organisations besides many individuals who join the Himalayan Cleanup in Darjeeling and Kalimpong.

“For our children there must be something to look forward to, for that, we have to realise that we are destroying our natural resources, tiring out our land instead of using it to increase its usefulness by being wasteful. We are supposed to hand down an amplified, prosperous and beautiful world to the children and not the other way around” Shivangi Hamal, Camelia School, Darjeeling.

“We need to be responsible to minimise our plastic waste, for that we need to start somewhere and there is no better time than now” Roshan Sharma, DRDC, Swacch Bharat Mission.

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