Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Saturday 5 January 2019
In India, a trio of unlikely heroes wages war on plastic

By RISHABH R. JAIN goes back as a waste."
NEW DELHI (AP) — For more While Prakritii initially made
than 25 years, Ram Nath most of its income from ex-
has lived on the banks of ports to Europe and the U.S.,
the Yamuna River under a Bardhan said the market
19th-century iron bridge. for eco-friendly products is
Each morning, the wiry growing in India, especially
man walks a few steps from among younger people
his makeshift hut and enters who value quality over
the black, sludgy waters of price. His company gener-
one of India's most polluted ates more than $150,000 in
rivers. He is fishing for trash. revenue each year.
"This is the only work we In places, the trend is grow-
have," said the 40-year-old, ing.
sorting through a pile of Some fancy restaurants in
plastic bottles, bags, and and around New Delhi are
cast-off electronics. doing away with plastic
Hundreds of garbage col- straws and replacing them
lectors live on the Yamuna's with paper straws. That's
banks in New Delhi, making largely because of Aditya
$2 to $4 per day recycling Mukarji, a student who
plastic waste collected launched his campaign
from the river. While Nath after seeing a video of two
doesn't think of himself as veterinarians trying to re-
an environmentalist, he is move a plastic straw from
one of a handful of New a turtle's nose.
Delhi residents waging war "People listen more to chil-
against the tsunami of plas- dren bringing up environ-
tic threatening to swamp mental concerns," said
India. They include a 9th- Mukarji, who has helped
grade student who con- replace more than 500,000
vinces posh restaurants to plastic straws at restaurants
give up plastic straws and and hotels since he started
a businessman whose com- his campaign in March.
pany makes plates and If nothing else, India hosting
bowls from palm leaves. In this photo taken May 28, 2018, Ram Nath, 40, sorts reusable trash he fished out from Yamuna, the World Environment Day
India, which hosts U.N. India's sacred river that flows through the capital of New Delhi. has made environmental
World Environment Day on Associated Press protection a hot topic — at
June 5, can use all the help least briefly — in a country
it can get. This year's theme when a large part of one years raising awareness feel of thick paper plates, where trash is everywhere.
is "Beat Plastic Pollution." of the city's dumps crashed and creating localized ef- biodegrades in seven to Tuesday will see numer-
With more than 15 million down onto them. forts to curb plastic pollution ten days, he said. The com- ous official environmental
people, New Delhi and its "All these products which credits the Bharatiya Jana- pany doesn't harvest any gatherings across India,
surrounding cities produce we use because of con- ta Party-led government palm trees, but waits for clean up campaigns along
an estimated 17,000 tons venience take many hun- for making waste manage- leaves to fall to the ground. the Yamuna and mall food
of trash daily, according to dreds of years" to even ment and pollution a more "In this entire process, we courts agreeing to forgo
Indian officials and environ- partially decompose, said serious issue. are not harming the envi- plastic plateware for one
mentalists. That requires im- Chitra Mukherjee, an en- "It is a collaborative effort ronment," said Bardhan. day.
mense dumps, hills of stink- vironmental expert and between not only bureau- "We are generating some- The hope is that everything
ing trash that measure up head of operations at crats, but researchers, en- thing from the waste, peo- doesn't go back to normal
to 50 meters tall. Last year, Chintan. vironmentalists who have ple are loving it, and then it on Wednesday.q
two people were killed Mukherjee, who has spent been brought on board
to make some progressive
policies," she said.
But policy and impact can
mean different things. Like
the repeated bans in New
Delhi on using thin plastic
bags. The latest regula-
tion came with a hefty $75
fine. Yet a trip to nearly any
shop in New Delhi makes
clear how widely the ban is
flouted.
Amardeep Bardhan be-
lieves he can make a dif-
ference.
His company, Prakritii, In this photo taken May 28, 2018, Vaibhav Jaiswal, co-founder
In this photo taken June 1, 2018, a family of trash collectors sort makes plates and bowls of Prakritii, or nature, a company that manufactures eco-friend-
reusable trash which they collected from a garbage dump in from the leaves of south In- ly dinnerware, inspects his products in his warehouse in New
New Delhi, India. dia's areca palm trees. The Delhi, India.
Associated Press Associated Press
plateware, which has the