Making informed choices for restoring ecosystem post Environment day.
Celebrating Environment Day everyday !
Yesterday the whole world celebrated World Environment Day, this year the celebrations were quite different as the pandemic still prevails. Social media was flooding with live sessions, workshops, zoom meetings for celebrating Environment day virtually. Environment day should not be constrained to celebrating only on a single day, rather we should celebrate environment everyday. It is one of the biggest event celebrated on June 5 every year, by the UN across the globe with an aim to generate awareness amongst people regarding the significance of nature. The theme for this year is ‘Ecosystem Restoration’ and this year also mark the launch of UN Decade on ecosystem restoration 2021–2030. Eco-system restoration is restoring various ecosystems like biodiversity, forest, oceans, cities etc. This can be done by initiating activities at individual and community level where people’s participation will be of keen importance in assisting for recovery of ecosystems which are already degraded and conserving the ones already healthy and flourished. Apart from ecosystem restoration, what was buzzing around as a hashtag this year was ‘Generation Restoration’. Generation restoration is a global call for youth who have passion for environment conservation and are actively working for it. The youths, not only tech savvy but eco-savvy as well can participate in this challenge which is aligned to the UN decade on ecosystem restoration. The young generation who’s grown up facing the impact of climate change is now vocal about it and are coming up with new ideas which are long term and will help in conserving nature in a long run. These ecopreneurs, eco-activists can be a part of this Generation Restoration challenge and start a journey to restoring the ecosystem.
`In this blog, get to know how a person as an individual and as a community can contribute for restoring the environment.
Cities and Towns are the urban ecosystems which have their share in impact due to climate change and needs restoring. We as a community residing in them are liable to take care of it and take actions even if they are small, as something is better than nothing. One of the major threat to urban ecosystem is poor waste management. If not managed properly, it’s a huge task and will impact the environment and human health as well. While going zero waste is not possible for every one, but managing the waste at home can definitely delay the waste generation process.
Role of Individual for making informed choices for delaying the waste generation
Kitchen products which includes huge variety of spices in case of Indian kitchens generates a lot of waste, including it’s plastic packaging and plastic containers which eventually end up in dustbin after few months. Using transparent containers makes it easy to identify the spices quickly but instead of buying a whole new container for that, one can just clip the packets right by using easily available clip sealers and avoid buying a container.
With lockdown, everyone is back to working from home, and this definitely has made us eat more, we tend to order more online, not only food but snacks as well. When bored while working it’s common we crave food and with kitchen being a walking distance away, is the perfect destination to fill your tummy with snacks which ends up filling dustbin with the plastic wrappers. Most snacks come with resealable packet which can be reused to store perishable food items. Not only this, but the containers which come with online food delivery, the ice cream jars can all be reused to store veggies and cereals. Do check out our ecofriendly lifestyle blog for more hacks.
Role of community for restoring the ecosystem
Collective and continuous efforts by a community can build a potential for change in mindset and behavior. It’s all about taking actions when it comes to restoring ecosystem and community as a group can indulge themselves in simple activities like planting trees, feeding birds by placing bird feeders, removing plastic waste from rivers, lakes or get involve in beach cleaning. Our ground team in coordination with local linkages, was successful in making more than 5000 seed balls across 5 cities in Maharashtra and these were planted on Environment day at various locations. Seed balls are clusters of seed, wrapped in a mixture of soil and compost. Native seeds are preferred as it won’t imbalance the growth of already present native species. Our team identified native seeds and started collecting seeds of trees like Neem, Tamarind etc. Making seed balls is easy and it can be thrown and grown anywhere, except on very dry land. It’s a community activity which brings people together and creates an ecosystem where people are induced by small actions taken for restoring the ecosystem. We’ll be sharing more details about seed balls and how to make them in a different blog soon, stay tuned !
Role of individuals and communities for addressing companies regarding plastic packaging
With the pandemic, buying everything online has become the safest way of shopping. The ordered product is delivered covered in huge amount of plastic, which is disposed off. Starting a conversation that matters and taking action to address this is necessary. We have written emails, and made social media posts by tagging the company’s official page, where we have urged the companies to reduce or redesign it’s plastic packaging. Starting such conversations not only grabs companies attention but also makes them aware of the fact that consumers are becoming more conscious and companies might consider taking action for reducing the plastic packaging waste. We have composed a sample email for you all, which could be used while approaching the companies :
Hello,
I hope all is well. XYZ App/Company is my favorite when it comes for online shopping and I recently ordered food items from your App/Company. I was happy with the fresh products I received but was little worried about the amount of plastic package used for wrapping the products. So, I weighed the plastic and identified the type of plastic and mentioned it in the picture attached with this email (this is optional).
I have been noticing this and would like to suggest the company to adapt more eco-friendly options. It would be great if the company could reduce or redesign their packaging.
This would significantly reduce the plastic waste generated on huge scale.
I hope you take my request under consideration, thank you !
Sincerely,
Name
Sometimes taking small actions might seem helpless but having patience and putting in continuous efforts to stay conscious for a cause is worth giving a shot. A cause, to restore ecosystem, a cause to reducing waste and a cause to adapt to changing climate and contributing our best for it’s recovery.
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Contributed By- Ashlesha Karande, Communications Executive at Social Lab
Social Lab Environmental Solutions is a waste management company, which helps brands take-back and scientifically dispose of post-consumer plastic waste of their products. Brands take our services to fulfill Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) obligation under Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2018.
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