There are numerous sustainable alternatives to unsustainable products available today. Many businesses have emerged with the intention of replacing current products with sustainable ones. Are they only for business? Or are they actually sustainable? Who performs a life cycle analysis? Who properly verifies it if some company provides it? Moreover, what about the existing products that need to be critically scrutinized for even their existence?
In true essence, sustainability is in minimizing the usage of resources. Today, the resources we use are far too much compared to what our parent’s generation used, most importantly in an unsustainable way. Nowadays, 15-20g of chips or any other namkeen are packed in a lovely multilayer packet that costs considerably more than the actual cost of the food within. Additionally, 200ml of water comes in a PET bottle with a PP cap and multilayer printed sticker (three kinds of different plastic used in a single bottle). All FMCG product packets and sachets are getting smaller and smaller in the market. There are numerous examples of these kinds of packaging. Moreover, not only the cost of packaging is higher, but also the resources used and its life cycle are censorious.
If you collect 1kg of garbage from any dump site, 90% of the garbage is containing small packets of FMCG and it is multilayer. Hence, recycling is also not possible, it will be a part of landfill only. Day by day, FMCG companies are making smaller packets as per their marketing strategy; are they promoting littering or what? The major responsibility lies with the manufacturer for promoting small packets and increasing the burden of plastic pollution & littering. These massive FMCG companies, in contrast, have CSR and sustainability pages on their websites that are solely for display. I am sure that they are not going to clean their rubbish from the street and landfills.
The minimal size of the packets should be regulated because it has become a disaster for the environment. In a landfill, it will remain unchanged for hundreds of years. They'll stand as memorials for future generations. In the same way that archaeological digs now uncover priceless artefacts from our ancestors, future digs will find plastic trash.
Why are we using our intelligence so poorly and demanding so much packaging? Bananas, for instance, have their own natural protective coating, but we nevertheless wrap each one in plastic to make it appear more opulent. There are plenty of examples of intelligence being utilized for luxury at the expense of serious environmental damage. Don’t we know the consequences of environmental damage? We are already experiencing the worst-ever climate changes and natural calamities. Is it not enough to understand our mistake? Let’s stop being a part of pollution and limit ourselves to using excessive plastic packaging. We should remember that we have only one earth. If the situation can be comprehended, this is no less than an emergency. We are already late to act.
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