Plastic and Pakistan
There is a growing concern about the use of plastic for the last few years. Similarly, there has been a sincere concern on the conduct of Pakistan as a responsible nation. There was a time when both these words were darling of the world’s most powerful and the richest. We can see plastic everywhere. Right from kitchen shelves, fridge to bathroom buckets. When I travelled to the western world for the first time, the first thing I observed was cleanliness and the second was the large scale use of plastic in everyday life.
I could see large scale use of plastic there as compared to developing nation like India. Milk in a plastic can, so is curd, cheese, butter, even a cucumber is wrapped in plastic and so is cauliflower. Back home in India, most of the people in rural or urban mostly use steel vessel to purchase milk. Vegetables like cauliflower, cucumber are not wrapped in plastic. I can see even packets of biscuits and potato chips have nested multiple plastic packs in the UK. In order to give customized handy products, the use of plastic is rampant everywhere. In short, thinking life without plastic looks next to the impossible.
If I go back in history, around 25 years back, very few people were using plastic water bottles while travelling by train or bus or for daily commutation. People used to refill their thermos at railway stations or bus stations. Water available there was considered quite good to drink and there were no reports of people falling sick after consuming such water. With the passing of time and advancement of modernity or overreach of the global economy, carrying thermos became old fashioned and a sign of being not prosperous. Instead, people started buying water bottles of Bisleri, Aquafina with pride and it became a social status to buy packaged water bottles. Celebrities, sultry models and their ads on television did the rest of the damage.
The influence of the corporate world and subsequent weakening of govt commitment to provide clean water to its citizens at appropriate junctures made the use of plastic bottles a need. It has become a menace now. Plastic pollution has reached the bottoms of oceans and to the core of solid glaciers of Siberia. The fragile world life in sea, earth and mountains are at risk. Per person, plastic waste in west is 3 times that of the
east. Thanks to the increased clamour on climate change in the western world and social media upheaval, people are turning back to the use of their thermos and started refilling it during travel. I have recently seen refill water joints in London zoo and London railway stations and was much happy to see it.
Any idea who is the biggest supplier of plastic as well as of Pakistan ?? it’s the red dragon. Most of the plastic toys, plastic kitchen wares, electronic parts, bathroom and garden parts are ‘made in china’ and so are the weapons, ammunition, missiles of Pakistan army and as well as its terrorists. At the time when India is sending advanced satellites to Mars and Moon for the welfare of mankind, Pakistan is too busy to launch its well-trained terrorists to India to create mayhem with weapons supplied by dragon king. The world is too much concerned about plastic and Pakistan nowadays. Its impact is huge on the dragon king’s economy. Restrictions on the use of plastic will shut down many factories of Guangzhou, China. Similarly a very poor and alienated Pakistan will impact China’s economy as China has got lots of vested interest in Pakistan for money or military.
But as there is a saying, ‘ there is time for everything’, the time has come to explore new alternatives of plastic if we want to save mother earth. Similarly, the time has come for the world to be very strict against Pakistan’s modus operandi to use terrorism to support its economy. As Pakistan is home to around 200 million people, it can not be wiped out but it’s very basic mentality on terrorism in the name of religion must be wiped out. Time for action on plastic and Pakistan which are bounded by a red dragon.
