Ayush Ministry shows eco-friendly ways to fight single use plastic

New Delhi: In a bid to make people aware of plastic pollution, the Ministry of Ayush avoided the use of plastic material during the three-day event in Gujarat, in which the ministry claimed the initiative helped in reducing 119437.5 kg of carbon dioxide.

According to the Ministry, an estimated use of more than 1 lakh plastic bottles, 15000 plastic tags and 50 thousand plastic cutleries was avoided during the events leading to an estimated reduction of 119437.5 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit (GAIIS) was held on 20th April, echoed the resolve of the country to curb single use plastic with dedicated efforts to minimize carbon footprints.

“The eco-friendly practices were adopted to organize the events in line with the thought of the Prime Minister and in order to promote healthy and environment friendly practices, the participants were provided with kits that included copper bottles for drinking water” the Ministry said in a statement.

While talking about the arrangements, the organizers mentioned that “Environmental consciousness remained the core of decision making for organisation of the event such as avoiding the use of plastic flex banners and other such material with an objective to minimize carbon footprints.”

The event also featured creative exhibitions on environment related issues and solutions. Interestingly, the exhibit on ‘Smart & Sustainable Ayush Factories for the Future’, showcased steps toward efficient waste disposal for a clean, green, and sustainable future and also demonstrated the way to live without plastic which is commonly taken as unavoidable and most convenient.

The unique eco-friendly practices adopted in organising these two events also garnered praise from diverse communities of stakeholders.

Talking about the exhibition and environmental initiatives, Mr. Anand Chordia, Founder, The Eco Factory Foundation, mentioned, “The exhibition is an effort to showcase various aspects of the problems and solutions related with environment including, different waste auditing and segregation processes and their effective management, grey water management and possible recycling, use of renewable source of energy, converting barren empty lands to biodiversity parks to retain or regain native flora and fauna, concept of green building, with an aim to achieve Net Zero by applying simple and replicable methods.”

Dr. Pratik Mehta, an Environmentalist, mentioned that the Microplastic evil was recently reported in 80% of the human blood samples tested, he also insisted on adopting an approach of living and sustaining without plastic as much possible.

The growing environmental concerns and consciousness among organisations and leaderships across the globe is now reflecting in the conduct of these entities.

Even the Prime Minister Narender Modi while speaking at the 14th session of the Conference of Parties (CoP-14) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), t mentioned about the Single-use plastic is not only harmful to the health of the people, but it is also a major reason for the deterioration of the health of the land.

In fight against single use plastic, the government has decided to ban the SUP by July 2022. According to data, India is generating about 3.5 million tonnes of plastic waste annually and the per capita plastic waste generation has almost doubled over the last five year. Government and industry estimates suggest that India recycles only about 4 million tonnes of plastic.