“How to reduce the amount of plastic put in public dustbins?”.
This is the problem statement I am working on.
One Sunday evening, was when I found a major problem. I had gone out on a walk, as a part of the Karthavyam homework. The roads would have looked same to everyone but me. Everyone would be walking on the road, thinking of anything but environmental problems. To me, everything looked like a problem. The dustbins in and around the roads of Thazhambur were filled with different forms of plastic. Many cows were seen chewing on the plastics. This did not strike as a good thing. The cows might get various diseases, infections due to chewing plastic. This was a problem.
Weeks later, I set out on a walk. Again. I went to the same place and decided to interview a few people in that area. The amount of plastic this time was even more. The smell of the garbage had become from bad to really bad. I interviewed three people there.
Interviewee 1
A man named G.Sudhakar at an age of 30. He was a shop owner who was using that particular place as a shop for rent. He had a very simple yet big role. He dumps plastic covers in the public dustbins. He also gives plastic covers to his customers. He said that they don’t listen when he asks them to bring bags. He believes in these social causes, so I asked him if he could have a dustbin outside his shop. He said that he couldn’t as it wasn’t his own place. I didn’t stress on that point as I did not want jeopardize.
He also mentioned that this was a problem in which everyone has to work together, one person cannot do anything. He had also promised to keep two different dustbins – one for bio-degradable things and one for plastic after three months when he gets his own place to keep his shop.
Interviewee 2
Aged 35, a woman named Navanitham. She too had a shop. When I asked her how she would get rid of all the plastic she said that she throws them in the dustbin. She also mentioned that in the early days, when there were no apartments they would burn the plastic at home in the garden. She said that now as we live in apartments we can burn the plastics. She also said that if the cleaners come to collect the garbage from the public dustbins everyday, then the ccows would be affected less.
Interviewee 3
A woman, who was 28 years old, named Soundary. She works in a super market. She said that people always give excuses when she asks them to get bags from home. They mostly say that as they are coming back home from office they can’t get bags. She says only two people in twenty get bags from home. She is forced to give them plastic covers if they don’t get bags. There was one dustbin outside the super market which had a mixture of bio-degradable things and plastics.
