Earth5R

Plastic Bottles Recycling Program At Mumbai

Even though drinking water is virtually free of cost but that doesn’t stop the world from spending over $100 billion on bottled water a year. We throw away more than 60 million plastic bottles a day- yes 60 million plastic bottles per single day!

A Plastic Bottles Recycling Program at Mumbai was held by Earth5R Mumbai team at different locations. The team managed to collect over hundreds of plastic bottles which were then sent for reusing.

This week long ‘I’m Earth’ activity was conducted individually by Sagar Kulkarni, Akshita Shah, Kaksha Mahudkar and Vandita Morarka at  Than, Naupada, Powai and Goregaon area respectively. People thought most types of plastic bottles are safe to reuse at least a few times, but recent revelations about chemicals in Lexan bottles are enough to scare even the most committed environmentalists from reusing them (or buying them in the first place).

Dr. Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, told The New York Times that “there is no reason to believe that bottled water is safer than tap water.

Read more here about what Dr. Rina Solomon has to say.

Many people drink bottled water because they believe it to be of a higher quality, cleaner and better-tasting, but that’s not necessarily true.

Studies have indicated that food and drinks stored in such containers—including those ubiquitous clear Nalgene water bottles hanging from just about every hiker’s backpack—can contain trace amount of Bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic chemical that interferes with the body’s natural hormonal messaging system. This horrifying revelation became a matter of concern for our volunteers because plastic bottles are dominating modern urban life.

Team Mumbai decided to step up to these concerns. They decided to conduct this activity individually for wide-coverage. Members of Earth5R prepared an informative speech to spread awareness which sunk deep in the residents’ hearts.

The residents’ participation grew overtime and team made a wise choice of carrying on the ‘Plastic Bottle Collection Program’ for a week. Series of talks were exchanged between residents and this activity had a great impact.

The bottles were sent to an NGO called Hariyali (working in the field of protection and up gradation of environmental conditions) which would use the bottles to store and transport water for irrigation. Plastic bottles could finally be assigned to reuse and for an important cause.

Take a pledge to carry a reusable water bottle filled with safer home water. 

– Reported by Akshita Shah. Edited by Pragya Lodha and Vandita Morarka.