What inspired me to start on my Plastic Reduction Journey:

I have been passionate about anti-littering since a very young age. What bothered me was the fact that since young age we are taught to keep our area clean but no one worked to create awareness that our area is beyond one’s home. Dumping trash outside home is also “NOT OK”. This has been an uphill task and honestly being educated doesn’t make an individual any better. What was most disturbing was educated office goers dumping trash in trains and outside their cars without a second thought.

So that’s where my journey to reduce trash and dispose off trash started. I started carrying an extra bag to collect trash I saw on the way and even pointing out to others that it’s not ok to just dump and forget about it. And while doing this I became more and more aware of plastic pollution. Watching “the plastic ocean” was the final straw (pun intended) and then I became deeply involved with “reduction of plastic waste” and elimination of “single use plastics”

I started by trying to follow Refuse – Reduce – Reuse – Repurpose – Rot – Recycle

1. I stopped ordering takeaway unless a “non single use” plastic option is available.
2. Completely Refuse Plastic Cutlery – I carry my own bamboo + steel cutlery with me at all times.
3. Completely Refuse Plastic Bottles and takeaway coffee cups – I always carry my water bottle and my coffee tumbler with me.
4. I reuse and carry my own take away container – while this might seem like a tough thing to remember or to do, once you build the habit for it, you rarely forget to put these containers with you when planning to have food from a restaurant. I also don’t order the food online but prefer picking it up on my way back home from work as much as possible
5. I car pool as much as possible. While this is not linked to plastic consumption, it definitely goes a long way in helping the environment especially when you live in traffic choked cities like I do.
6. Rot & Recycle: I manage all my wet waste at home with a Home composting set-up. It takes a bit of getting used to but it ensures I am not using any bin liners and my garbage to landfills is minimal (if any)
7. Reduce: I am always working towards minimalism. I have considerably reduced buying new things and prefer to buy up-cycled or sustainable products only when I am in need of buying something new.
8. Recycling all my metal, glass and cloth trash generated. I am also a fan of up-cycled products and giving a second life to what people normally consider trash or waste.
9. Buying non packaged items only for groceries and toiletries as much as possible. Places like Zero Waste Stores and bulk stores really help to minimise the amount of plastic packaged products one is forced to buy at times.
   10. Only gifting reusable, unpackaged and zero waste items. As of now I have gifted close to 150 THT cutlery sets to my family, friends and my team. We need to “walk the talk”.

What Comes Next:

There are times when I feel I should have started on this journey earlier and possibly done some professional qualifications in this field. However, I do my best now to reduce my own consumption further and inspire others as well by working with different communities, social enterprises and organisations to create more and more awareness and work towards making a “less plastic” journey easier than it seems.

In terms of products, I would focus on bringing my usage of sanitary napkins/ tampons to 0 as I still use some in emergencies. I would also want to make my takeaway containers usage an absolute 0 as there are still times when I end up ordering food instead of being able to get the food in reusable containers.

About the Author:

Aparna best describes herself as an aspiring student of life who is on a perpetual journey to try to make herself better – a better environmentalist, a better feminist, a better human being who is most happy if she can make things better than they were before.

She believes that what we need is more people to care and participate in reduction of plastic pollution even if imperfectly rather than a few passionate activists.

Get in touch with her if you want to know more about veganism, why gender equality is need of the hour and why we all need to care a bit more for the survival of mother earth for our next generation – all over a nice cup of coffee or even on phone.

She is based in Jakarta, Indonesia and works for an e-commerce organisation there during weekdays, and the environment for the rest of her time. Her plastic footprint is 4.15 kilos.