A short story goes viral

Very thgt provoking..what seems like a fad today was the way to live...where did we go wrong :(

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Checking out at the supermarket recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. I apologized and explained, “We didn’t have this green thing back in my earlier days“.

The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations“.

She was right about one thing–our generation didn’t have the green thing in “Our” day. So what did we have back then? After some reflection and soul-searching on “Our” day, here’s what I remembered we did have….
Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled. But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s nappies because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 240 volts — wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right. We didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of Wales. In the kitchen, we blended & stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she’s right. We didn’t have the green thing back then.
We drank from a water fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

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Cookies Anyone

Going to the grocery store with my DH means getting home atleast one pack of cookies/biscuits. Frequency has reduced over the years, however I intend to put a complete stop to it. Being a no kids home - its easy for us. And we dont need all that high fructose corn syrup, preservatives, colours, processed sugar and maida/all purpose flour either. I bake a lot so the solution - bake whenever he wants to buy a pack.

Apart from dietary no-nos, what troubles me is all the packaging it brings along.

note to self!:
- I need to follow Beth Terry's idea to write more frequently to companies and totally give up on buying them
- bake my whole wheat eggless versions at home

Please share your thgts on this..would love to hear if you ever think of this, and if you did, your solutions

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New beginnings for the better at University of California

I got this message in my email and had to share it here. 

For Immediate Release:

Student groups at the University of California Santa Barbara, including the Associated Students Coastal Fund, Environmental Affairs Board, Isla Vista Surfrider Foundation and CalPirg, have banded together with campus administration and the Plastic Pollution Coalition to make a profound impact on the campus community and the City of Santa Barbara. 

Compelled by the goal to ban single use plastic bags and raise awareness of the detrimental affects of plastics on our environment, the students have created a new partnership on campus named the UCSB-Plastic Pollution Coalition (UCSB-PPC).

The global Plastic Pollution Coalition (PPC) is an alliance of individuals, organizations and businesses working together to stop plastic pollution and reduce its toxic impacts on humans,animals and the environment. The UCSB-PPC is participating in the global PPC's "Plastic-Free Campuses" project as the pilot school. The goal of the project is to encourage more universities to reduce their plastic consumption by educating their fellow students, raising awareness in the campus community and actively engaging students in campus policy.

Alyssa Hall, a core member of the UCSB-PPC, described the importance of the campaign that "We live in one of the most exceptional places in the world. We go to one of the most exceptional schools in the world. Shouldn't our policies around single use plastic be exceptional as well? We can do better than single use plastics and the UCSB - Plastic Pollution Coalition has unified our campus around eliminating this wasteful practice."

The week of January 9 - January 13 marks the kickoff of the campaign and will include such displays as dumping a single days worth of plastic collected in the center of campus, the installation of a sculpture made completely of plastic found on local beaches, and a press conference.

In conjunction with UCSB-PPC's campaign, UCSB Reads, which hands out over 3,000 free books to students every year, has chosen a book focused on the theme of marine plastic pollution. Moby Duck, by Donovan Hohn, discusses a spill of plastic ducks into the Pacific Ocean in the 1990s and the hunt to find them on local beaches. These organizations have joined forces to bring even more campus support to the campaign.

Upcoming events for the UCSB-PPC include the author Donovan Hohn coming to campus to discuss his book, "a day without a bag" where they will be giving out free re-usable bags, a re-usable item vendor faire on the UCSB campus. Students organizers will continue to collect signatures on campus with the goal to make an impact to City Council and the campus to be plastic bag free!

For more information on the PPC and upcoming events, email ucsbppc@gmail.com.

Pic courtesy: UCSB-Plastic Pollution Coalition (UCSB-PPC).

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Klean Kanteen water bottle

Wishing everyone a very happy new year and more greener choices for 2012...This post is long overdue...bad health dint let me post it earlier..I have something exciting to share...

My hubby bought us a pair of all steel and bamboo Klean Kanteen water bottles for our bdays :).  I had Klean Kanteen on the list, but the cost made me look for other options.After a long and disappointing search for all steel and no plastic water bottle, we decided to buy Klean Kanteen bottles

I was excited...no styrofoam peanuts..yay!!!

Was a little disappointed to see my bottle wrapped in plastic :(

But then the bag says 100% compsotable..I really hope it is!!

Arent the bottles amazing. They costed us $32 with taxes...(after we used an online $2 coupon)

I plan to reuse jute rice bags to make nice compact totes/bags for the bottles

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A Conscious Retailer

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TED video

Watch live streaming video from tedxgp2 at livestream.com

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What would your garden grow

Be it a tiny balcony, a backyard or a huge farm, whatever your space, what would your garden grow

Edibles??

source: inhabitat

or go floral

backyardnature(.)com

let me know ur thoughts as to why you chose either one of them

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Beyond Plastic Bags ~ a thought about our clothes

While the crusade is on about plastic bags and other non bio degradables around us, one most important thing we forget about is the footprint of our clothes. I had this post in mind for a really long time now. However, I could not sum up my thoughts to speak about our clothing choices.

Even the green crusade brigade gives very little thought to the earth friendly-ness of the clothes worn. Little do we realize that all the polymer based products - Rayon, Nylon, Terricot, chiffon, synthetic crape (crepe), spandex, Acrylic etc are all non bio-degradable.

source

I have seen women in my family and around me wear Nylon Sarees (Nylex) and it hit me a few years ago, that the whole wardrobe is an eventual toxic landfill. That is just a part of the whole deal. Clothes for men and children fall under this category as well. The issue includes every easy to maintain fabric we find on shelves.

I go blank as to how this silent, most ignored and most dangerous plastic contribution may be stopped...If we all were to shift to cotton, hemp, jute or wool, the demand for these natural fiber would explode and lead to issues associated with over consumption and over production, processing and what not...I would appreciate your thoughts.

Note:  And another point to note here is that routing non biodegradable junk/garbage to landfill is not a sensible solution. It is as bad as dumping our trash into the nearest water source (lakes, rivers, oceans). We need to understand the impact of leeching, plastic breakdown and the resulting impact on the fertility of the land (the landfill and a few kilometers around it), safety of water sources (running and ground), and the air near the landfill.

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Repurposed and Upcycled ~ Car tires

I came across a Melbourne, Australia based company, called Ruba Designs

Ruba designs upcycles used car tires into amazing designer table mats, desk mats and coasters. If we were to ignore the enery and effort which goes into this process, and the consequent recycling process footprint, this is a cool concept...a lot better than directing used rubber tires into landfill and also reducing the need to chop trees, produce more cotton, bamboo, jute etc or produce more plastic for mats and coasters. 

all images courtesy: Ruba

The Placemats and coasters, which won’t bend out of shape, are warm and inviting to touch, waterproof, heat resistant,  dishwasher safe, and non-slip. They are available in 6 different designs to cater for different tastes.  Also included in the collection are 4 styles of mouse pads and 3 styles of desk sets for the office. Ruba designers Sonia Attard and Lisa Vincitorio share their views in an interview on a fellow Green blog >>Link

If you are interested in updates about Ruba and its products...do click on their Facebook LIKE button  :)..cheers to more such ventures..yay!! 

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On Avoiding Plastic Produce bags

Big Box stores and grocery chains liberally hand out polythene bags at the billing counter. Plastic bags have become so cheap to produce, that stores no longer consider them an overhead. The 80's and 90's shopper stopped taking totes to the store, and was asked to choose between paper or plastic. (Most of them seem to have gone for plastic. (not that paper would have made sense).

In the late 60's and the early 70's, invention of plastic was said to be a great boon for mankind. Extensive and short sighted choices made over the last few decades have ended up as a decent sized plastic patch floating around in the ocean(s). We hear a lot about the Great Garbage patches in the oceans. Pacific plastic patch is just one of them and has only grown over the last few year.

source

source

Shoppers never seem to stop and think if they really need to pack fruits and vegetables- first in a flimsy 9 micron bag at the produce section

and then bag it at the billing counter in another 9 or 20 micron bag.

source

Sheer waste of resource and such a heavy penalty on the environment. Avoiding those two bags may not seem to make a difference, but spreading the thought definitely helps - exponentially speaking.

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Pass the spinach....er.....diazinon please! ~ Guest post ~ Kamini Raghavan

Access to organic food without the hassle of plastic packaging means a lot. I came across a post by a fellow blogger, the very talented Kamini (of Saffron and Silk and Zingara Girl) and requested her to share her (and her husband's) experience with Hydroponics.....What to know more ...read on...:)

Over to Kamini....

Food! We all love food, some of us live to eat, some of us eat to live. But either way, we all have a love/hate relationship with food.

I am not a huge foodie and I am not at all fussy, give me my roti/dal, a couple of veggie dishes (especially if spinach is one of them) and I'm happy. All I ask is that the veggies be organic and fresh! But where I live getting my hand on organic vegetables is almost impossible, so I have been settling for the next best thing - fresh vegetables from the local vendor around the corner. I make sure I buy them when his truckload arrives around 9am in the morning, so at least if not organic, its fresh! So imagine my horror when I found out that the vegetables in the local market are grown with 700 times the allowed pesticides that can be used. 700!!! Not 5 or 10, but 700!!!

Yes, so along with my cauliflower curry I have been eating Cypermethrin, the okra fry I love is laced with Monocrotophos, Palak Panir is accompanied by Malathion and Diazinon.....apples, oranges and grapes are not exempt either and are known to have residues of Aldrin and Chlordane, 2 deadly pesticides! There is irrefutable evidence to show that these residual pesticides can lead  to all kinds of health problems including cancer, kidney and neurological diseases.

This is when my husband and I decided to take matters into our own hands and grow our own vegetables. We researched soil, we learned about pest free gardening, we went into the backyard and peered at the ground to see what creepy crawlies were living there, we poked, we prodded, we bought fertilizer, we bought manure, we bought organic pesticides, we got rid of our gardener whose mantra was spray, spray, spray.....and while we were in the midst of all this we chanced upon the whole concept of HYDROPONICS! I won't go into too much detail, you can read about it here, but basically it is growing vegetables without soil, but only in water, where the plants are anchored in vermiculite or rock wool. Pests live in soil, so by default no soil = no pests! Pretty simple.

Of course, reading about it was one thing, actually starting our own hydroponic garden was quite another. No one had heard of it here in Hyderabad. So some more reading and googling and we found a vendor in Tamil Nadu who was selling bags of coco peat. Coco peat is just pure and simple ground up coconut husks and have the appearance and texture of soil, but none of the mineral content. So it mimics all the characteristics of soil without the problems associated with soil. (A little side note here about my husband.....he's the left brained engineer type, so nothing he does is ever without a whole lot of research and study and discussion and total concentration...and then he jumps into the project headlong and gives it his all!! No multi tasking like us women!!). So it would only be fair to say that this gardening project is entirely his baby, my only contribution was suggestions as to what vegetables to plant.

Hydroponics can be as simple as growing a single plant in hand watered bucket or as high tech as being fully automated, monitored and controlled with your cell phone!!! The average home hydroponic set up has a growing medium in trays, a reservoir/tank to hold the nutrients, a submersible pump and drip irrigation tubing for ease of watering, a simple timer and an air pump to oxygenate the nutrient solution. Of course light, natural or artificial is also required.

Since we were almost out of space in the backyard, we decided to set up shop on our rooftop terrace. So this is basically our set-up! The 4' long x 8" wide bags of coco peat came in flat bales which swelled up once we wet them with water. Each bag went from being an inch high to 8" high. Then 3 or 4 "X's" are slit on top of each, into which the seedling is planted. If you are scattering seeds for veggies like spinach and lettuce, you can make a long rectangular cut out and scatter the seeds. Once the little veggie saplings are planted, they need nutrients. The nutrient/fertilizer is concocted according to a very specific formula.....NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium), magnesium and calcium and a host of trace elements, are mixed together in water. (A small note here: even so called "organic veggies" in US markets, have NPK in their soil). A huge plastic container holds this nutrient mixture, and the pump and timer feed it to the plants via the drip irrigation system at specific intervals.

Here are some pics so you can understand better....

Little seedings getting watered by the drip

 The timer

 The reservoir holding the nutrient mixture

Tomato plants

Tomatoes getting bigger

and bigger.....

 Green leaf lettuce

 Tomatoes and okra harvested today

 Green peppers

 Cauliflower

 Greens - lettuce, fenugreek and spinach

 Cabbage - yet to be harvested

Chili peppers

Of course, as with any new venture, we had successes and we had mishaps! My husband totally overestimated how many tomato plants we would need, so now we get about 2 kilos a day!!! I have been doling out to all and sundry, I have juiced and souped and jammed and jellied, my next step will be taking it to the veggie shop and selling it!!! We planted too few lettuce plants, we should have staggered them, so now we have run out! The cauliflower got waterlogged and rotted! We only have one good okra plant so I get 2 or 3 okras a week!! By the time I cut them and make okra fry, we get a mouthful each!! 

But nothing can beat the thrill of picking your own freshly grown veggies however tiny or measly it is. Its an indescribable feeling. Every morning I head upstairs and see what is ready to harvest - all I need is a straw hat and I'll be like Ina Garten.. :-) We have a long long way to go before we are completely self sufficient, but its good to know that at least part of what I am putting in my mouth is organic and pesticide free! The last time I made this salad - pic below - it took less than 5 minutes for the lettuce to get from plant to table and the taste was amazingly fresh!

I hope I have inspired you all to go organic! If you are lucky enough to live in Chennai or Bangalore or any other big city, you can get organic at the market. But if you still want to experience the thrill of growing your own vegetables hydroponically, e mail me (Kaminiandraga@gmail.com) and my husband and I will happily share info with you! And for those really interested, here is an inspiring read!

Bon Appetit!

Thank you Kamini, for sharing such an informative post on the Green Crusader.

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GiveaCar ~ Guest Post

As mentioned in my previous post, here is the guest post from Daniel, of Giveacar, UK.

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Car donation: a great way to recycle your car

Recycling a car can be a difficult and daunting prospect. It’s not always easy to find someone who is willing to collect you vehicle and make sure it is thoroughly depolluted and reused. There are many people still out there who will simply harvest your cars easily resalable parts and leave the rest to rust.

If you’ve decided to purchase a more fuel efficient vehicle or have resolved to give up your car entirely for a greener mode of transport, car donation is one of the most environmentally friendly ways of getting rid of your old vehicle.

There are a wide range of car donation programs out there, supporting an array of different charitable causes. It is important to find one that will either scrap your vehicle in an environmentally friendly way or put it in to an auction to find a new owner. This ensures that the oldest cars, those with worst fuel consumption, are taken off the road, and newer ones are reused, reducing demand for new car production, which has a significant negative effect on the environment.

If you are in the UK, a great donation program to check out is Giveacar. They guarantee that at least 85% of the weight of your car will be recycled and reused. In addition, they only work with scrap yardHYPERLINK "http://www.giveacar.co.uk/scrap-yards"s that are affiliated to the UK Environment Agency, meaning that your car will be fully depolluted and not just left to drip its hazardous chemicals into the earth.

As well as the environmental benefits of their car HYPERLINK "http://www.giveacar.co.uk/car-scrappage"scrappage scheme, Giveacar promise to donate at least $100 to the donors chosen charity for each car donated. They are partnered with a variety of different causes including several charities tackling the effects of climate change.

Only a year old, they have already recycled more than 3,000 cars and have raised more than $300,000 for good causes.

If you would like to learn more about recycling your car or would like to donate a car, please visit the Giveacar website – www.giveacar.co.uk.

 PS: pictures courtesy: Giveacar 

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Giveacar ~ Green Charity

Daniel from UK based company called Giveacar, a not-for-profit organisation, sent in a post to be featured on Green Crusader. 

About the company:
Giveacar is into collection and recycling of unwanted cars, with the proceeds of each vehicle going to charity.
They have imported the idea of car donation from the US to the UK, and work with over 250 charities and have raised over £200,000 in the past year through car donation. The company works with scrapyards and salvage operators to ensure cars are sold for their maximum value – thus providing the maximum donation to charity.

Daniel says "Giveacar has had a really positive response, with the service providing a serious financial boost to charities in this current climate, and Reuters have made a news video on the positive effects of social enterprises such as Giveacar. (http://www.reuters.com/news/video/story?videoId=180720019). We are an environmentally friendly operation, recommended by Keep Britain Tidy and recently covered by the Ecologist:
http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/out_and_about/687787/recycle_your_car_dont_scrap_it.html"


Watch this space for the Guest post. :-)

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Green Garmento ~ Dry Cleaning gone Green (partly atleast!!) ~ Product Review

If you are into dry cleaning your clothes, then this post is definitely for you. Jennifer from the DMD Lab contacted me to write about - Green Garmento.

Whats Green Garmento!??

Every time you bring your dry cleaned clothes home.you walk away with your clothes wrapped in single use plastic bags. If you know me, you would know what I am thinking right now!! lol...

Statistics:

Each year in the US alone, 1.4 billion pieces of clothing are professionally cleaned and 300+ million pounds of single-use plastic drycleaning bags fill our landfills and waterways.

source

OK, now dont get into the "I recycle" argument with me....you too know that recycling every kind of plastic is not possible and also, the amount of time, energy and resources wasted due to the recycling effort is not worth the effort


An Alternative may be! How about Green Garmento...
The Green Garmento, a product developed by Rick Siegel,  is a 4-in-1 reusable garment bag - just like a reusable grocery tote for your clothes - that helps streamline and “green” your drycleaning/laundry routine.

Here’s how it works
At home your Green Garmento serves as a hanging or standard hamper

On your trip to the dry cleaner it functions as a duffel bag

And, most importantly, at pick-up, your dry cleaned clothes will be hanging and protected inside for the trip home – without a single-use plastic bag/twist ties to wrestle with!

It's a simple and simplifying lifestyle change that's practical, eco-friendly, stylish, and affordable ($9.99 retail).... not to mention helping to cut down on the 300 million pounds of plastic drycleaning bags that end up in our landfills each year!

More about the bag

Made from breathable, water-resistant material. 

Wide gussets and a side zipper help to keep everything safely in place and allow you easy access.

Available in multiple sizes from 40 to 72 inches, and a variety of colors, there’s a Green Garmento to suit every need and lifestyle.

Like a reusable grocery tote for your clothes that is eco-friendly, stylish, practical, and affordable ($9.99 retail).

Apart from the fact that the bag can reduce use of plastic bags, I am sure clothes must be safer and well managed in this bag (while being brought home)

How about a funny video :)





My Take...
I do not dry clean so I did not see the need to get this bag though. However, I have a small problem with the material used - Polypropylene. I personally would like a Sturdy Canvas or jute bag!! (Rick,  I hope you are listening). Sorry, thats the die hard Green Crusader speaking :)



Disclaimer: Content source: http://thegreengarmento.com/
Opinion is all mine....This is not a paid review.

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Earthowl.net - Care a Hoot for the planet

I had been to Climate Change Lobby monthly meet up last Saturday. It has been a few months since I joined the group, however, I could join in the monthly national meet up only last weekend. It was a great experience interacting with fellow Green crusaders and lobbyists. More about the meet in a later post...

As of now, I thought I'd share something about a fellow CCL member's website which sells heavy duty Cotton Canvas bags.

They sells well made canvas bags with witty messages on them.

I appreciate their effort to make a difference.  I recommend a visit to the website and knowing a little more about their effort and maybe a purchase if you could spare $10 and make a commitment to carry your own bag to shop.


Pictures and Link source- EarthOwl.net

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Eco friendly Printer - Not really

A friend sent out a group mail with ten eco friendly/green living ideas. One of them was a printer which doesn't need paper or ink. This is how it works-


source:eamusing.com
Company creates a desktop printer that doesn't use ink nor paper

Who says printers only use paper to print documents? It's time for you to meet the PrePeat Printer then. Different from conventional printers, PrePeat adopts a thermal head to print on specially-made plastic sheets. These plastic sheets are not merely water-proof, but could be easily erased, just feed the sheets through the printer again, and a different temperature will erase everything or just write over it. Also claimed by the manufacturer, such one sheet could be used up to 1,000 times so that you'll reduce your expenses on paper for sure."

My take!! - Why isnt this a green solution?...
A very important matter of concern - The plastic sheets used to print and erase content. Inventor(s) needs to work on that part of the invention...one major peeve being, the printer itself is made of plastic, whatever the lifespan of the appliance, it is going to end up as tiny immortal bits of plastic floating across some place in the world...hmm.. i am really hoping that i am not the only one who wants to think green or eco sense as a holistic approach

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PLASTIC STATE OF MIND - Parody with Purpose

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Go Green with Craigslist and Freecycle

Choosing the right kind of furniture for your home is a major influence on how green you could be...It is no harm in wanting the best for yourself. However, it could be a little considerate on our part to reuse heavy and usable furniture items (among other things) and not let them become landfill before their lifespan.

Readers who are familiar with my Design blog, The Design Enthusiast, know my love for preloved furniture. I have furnished an entire single bed room apartment with finds from local sellers via craigslist. Touch wood, it has been a great experience till date. Although, I am not into upholstered furniture, it is better to avoid beds or heavy cushioned sofas unless you are very sure about the condition. Reason being, loads of bugs and dirt may find their way into your abode. And then, there are odour issues we need to deal with. I dont advocate any particular furnishing style, but defintely would like to see minimal upholstery and cushions (read foam) as possible.

There could be more such collaborating websites I am not aware of yet. Another place to look out for is Freecycle. It is a brilliant way to minimize waste and think about greening your choices without much effort.

quoting the Freecycle website-
The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,864 groups with 7,603,875 members around the world. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by entering it into the search box above or by clicking on 'Browse Groups' above the search box. Have fun!

One very interesting thing about Freeecycle is that people giveaway stuff for free...so take a look, maybe you will find something that may work for you. (I have been a grad student here in the US...so hand me downs dont bother me...however, i dont see a similar vibe among fellow country men who land here with a job and a heavy paypacket. No comments on that though!!)

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Cling foil (Plastic) and the Food network

As much as I love the Food network and a few of their regular series, I am not really into the way they use disposable wrapping and cling foil and make it look acceptable and convenient. A simple marinating does not require a ziploc or any other plastic bag. Glass, ceramic or steel containers with a lid would work equally well or prove to be only better. Not sure if I am the only one with this peeve.

Pic source: food network

I get worked up when the cooks/chefs roll out ream after ream of cling foil and wrap up containers or dough. My question - Wont a glass / steel/ ceramic bowl with a lock lid or a simple plate work? (not that the glass bowl with plastic lids make any sense either. :(.. What pains me more is that viewers are pushed into believing that they need such products items and may not be able to work with out them. This translates to excessive consumption of plastics and more non biodegradable pollutants for the planet to suffocate on. Number of products (specially kitchen appliances and products) sold on the home shopping network are a testimony to my point.

Excessive use of styrofoam, plastic and other non bio degradable products should not be made to look good on TV.( Every time I mention : Media's responsibility, it sparks off an interesting debate.) Increased dependence on non renewable resources and non bio degradable elements is nothing but disaster for the planet and its life forms. Making mass production and obscene consumerism seem ok negates efforts put in by certain environmental interest groups

It is quite painful that my own kith and kin tend to ignore simple ways to avoid use of plastic in their lives. We may not be able to sacrifice everything, but a small beginning can make way to more sensible choices in future.

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