Six things to trash in 2021

As this year draws to a close, here is hoping for a cleaner, greener year ahead. Nidhi Adlakha writes

December 18, 2020 02:03 pm | Updated 02:03 pm IST

Goodbye 2020. A businessman tears off a calendar sheet of the outgoing year. Parting with coming year. Vector illustration flat design. Isolated on white background.

Goodbye 2020. A businessman tears off a calendar sheet of the outgoing year. Parting with coming year. Vector illustration flat design. Isolated on white background.

Bioplastics and greenwashing

Several countries, including India, have banned plastics in the last few years. Albeit implemented haphazardly, the bans have led to the rise of the bioplastics industry and we’ve also seen several ‘recyclable’ variants of the notorious material in the market. But it’s important to know that while all biodegradable plastics come under the bioplastics umbrella, all bioplastics are not biodegradable. Just because your shampoo bottles or flour bags have a ‘bioplastic’ label, it doesn’t always mean they can or are being recycled. Besides, only a minuscule percentage of the plastic that can be recycled is sent for recycling anyway. So, it’s wiser to choose cloth, paper or other packaging that is ‘eco’ in the true sense of the word. You not only leave behind a smaller carbon footprint but also help local brands and makers.

BENGALURU - KARNATAKA - 12.10.2020 : Bad condition of the Avenue road a shopping hub of the city, which was dug up for deveplomental works by the civic agencys, but the work is been done at a very slow phase, where both Pedestrians and vehicle users struggle to move on, in Bengaluru on October 12, 2020. Photo: K Murali Kumar / THE HINDU

BENGALURU - KARNATAKA - 12.10.2020 : Bad condition of the Avenue road a shopping hub of the city, which was dug up for deveplomental works by the civic agencys, but the work is been done at a very slow phase, where both Pedestrians and vehicle users struggle to move on, in Bengaluru on October 12, 2020. Photo: K Murali Kumar / THE HINDU

Roads without footpaths

Pedestrians constantly jostle for space on almost every road and street in the country. A majority of pavements are encroached by tea stalls, shops, parked vehicles and, in some cases, even taken over entirely by commercial establishments. With the pandemic giving a push to outdoor spaces — whether in parks, restaurants, or shopping districts — here’s hoping we see larger, pedestrian-only walkways. Several localities in cities like Bengaluru and Pune restrict the movement of cars and allow cyclists, pedestrians and children to move about freely. These regulations need to be mandatory across cities. It’s time we reclaimed our roads from vehicles.

The draft EIA

If Covid wasn’t a big enough dampener, the draft Environmental Impact Assessment 2020 made it worse. The fact that it’s still a draft gives us hope but the list of what needs to be done away with is long. For one, environmental clearances for infrastructure projects need to happen transparently and not via virtual calls. Biodiversity hotspots need to remain untouched — Mollem, Aarey Forest, Shivalik Elephant Reserve are a case in point. We need stronger laws and stricter implementation, as well as norms to protect livelihoods of farmers and indigenous communities.

NEW DELHI, 10/11/2020: A rag picker seen burning the electric cable billowing smoke, to take out the useful item at Bhalswa Landfill, as the air quality of Delhi and NCR is in severe category, in New Delhi on Novemeber 10, 2020. Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma

NEW DELHI, 10/11/2020: A rag picker seen burning the electric cable billowing smoke, to take out the useful item at Bhalswa Landfill, as the air quality of Delhi and NCR is in severe category, in New Delhi on Novemeber 10, 2020. Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma

Choked cities

It’s not just New Delhi that has a crippling air pollution crisis. Cities across the country have been battling smog and pollutants for decades. In the first few months of the lockdown, reports showed that air quality was improving. As restrictions were lifted, the scenario changed again and now several cities are reporting higher levels of winter pollution. What we need is a transportation policy that moves away from oil and towards natural energy, as well as accurate pollution trackers that keep a check on industries. What we don’t need are ‘aromatic’ oxygen bars and vehicles plying with expired Pollution Under Control certificates.

Bad design

System-centric designs need to give way to people-centric ones. This holds true for everything from homes and roads to shops and transportation. More so in a post-pandemic world that calls for social distancing, clean environment, and open spaces. Going forward, green spots need to be accommodated in the design of any space — public or private — and architects, designers, and consumers must look for indigenous, recycled and nature-inspired solutions.

30/11/2015 MUMBAI: Women peeping out of her balcony in order to catch a glimpse of her neighbourhood which is entirely sculpted out of wood in Central Mumbai. The fast disappearing remnants of a bygone era They are usually two- storied houses characterized by tiled roofs, dingy staircases and cramped rooms. Yet, Mumbais `chawls, the quaint, rickety wooden structures populating swathes of central Mumbai, are a relic of a not-so-distant past, and add context to the citys development, having had a considerable presence in its earlier landscape.   Photo; Paul Noronha

30/11/2015 MUMBAI: Women peeping out of her balcony in order to catch a glimpse of her neighbourhood which is entirely sculpted out of wood in Central Mumbai. The fast disappearing remnants of a bygone era They are usually two- storied houses characterized by tiled roofs, dingy staircases and cramped rooms. Yet, Mumbais `chawls, the quaint, rickety wooden structures populating swathes of central Mumbai, are a relic of a not-so-distant past, and add context to the citys development, having had a considerable presence in its earlier landscape. Photo; Paul Noronha

Dead rivers

A recent report by the Save Ennore Creek campaign highlights how 203 acres of the creek have been lost to a coal-ash dump for NTECL at Vallur and 100 acres to an oil storage terminal of Bharat Petroleum. A report in this paper found that ‘more wetlands are likely to be lost for projects, including an eight-fold expansion of the port at Kattupalli, which involves the creation of 2,000 acres of land inside the sea, and more than 1,000 acres of land by encroaching on the Ennore-Pulicat wetlands’. This conscious, systematic destruction of natural resources needs to stop. When developers and officials brazenly overlook environment laws, we are left with dead rivers.

A fortnightly column on environmental sustainability and urban issues

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