Green Legends

How did this all start? This fight I am having with one-time use plastics? I have been guilty too, of being proud to be using disposable plastics. Videos of animals in the oceans suffering due to ingestion of plastics started circulating in the media. Well, plastics have  already gotten into the very salt that we eat. What could be more alarming? And still people go on partying with plastic plates, even if they can afford a slightly more expensive ecofriendly solutions. Corn plates, bowls, glasses and spoons are found in plenty in your neighbourhood supermarket. Go find them or they'll come back to haunt our own children. It doesn't take much. We cannot eliminate plastics totally but can definitely reduce and recycle.  A domestic worker once laughed at my friend for reusing a disposable spoon. That's the kind of ignorance that still exists in the world. When I post messages on the environment, I am lucky to get even a single like or a comment, as against when I post

Just read a story about a disciple asking the Buddha for a new bedsheet. Upon being asked, he said he used the old sheet to make window curtains, the curtains to make napkins, the napkins were used to make mops, the mops being in tatters were used to make wicks for oil-lamps! Whew! That was actually a trip down memory lane. Why? Our older generation actually has used old saris to make curtains. I have made Indian dresses out of old saris too. We have seen our elders buying vegetables using cloth bags sewn from old clothes. Now why have we become so obsessed with showing off our buying capabilities ? I wonder if we were better off with less spending power just a few decades ago.  There was no need to shout out to our elders to use less plastic, because they anyway did.  Plastic tiffin boxes have replaced the old steel and brass-lined lunch-boxes.  We never had to worry about plastics or colours leeching into our foods. Plastic disposables have replaced the beautiful plates and bo