?Trash? in India

Something that is pretty hard to miss is the presence of garbage lining every street in India. Along with the cows, the smell of urine, and the children walking around barefoot, garbage is a pretty iconic image of every uniquely beautiful Indian city I've visited. The system of garbage in this country is actually quite interesting to me. At home, we all grew up throwing our trash “away”. There is a garbage bin around each corner where we can throw a wrapper or a food container and never think about it again. A man (or woman) drives by in a truck, loads it up, and carries it away to where it is buried or incinerated. Many of us never even see where our trash eventually goes.

However, this situation is much different in India. You are very much aware of when the time comes to throw something “away”. This is because you have one of two options: the decision to follow suit of so many before you by dumping your waste on the ground, or to carry around your waste until you see one of the two garbage cans placed somewhere in the city. This awareness of trash I have actually grown to appreciate. When I can actually see my trash being thrown on the ground I become much more aware of my food packaging and the reuse of certain items.

Until plastic was introduced to India, much of the trash here used to be biodegradable food wastes. Little tea stalls used to serve their tea in clay cups that when thrown on the ground would break and go back into the earth. Now, tea is served in little purple plastic cups that can still be seen littering any roadside or railway line. Although food packaging and many Western snack foods are also becoming popular, India is now faced with the utterly obvious problem of waste disposal. Many Indians have taken to burning their trash at their doorsteps including everything plastic. Unaware of the health implications to their families and the environment, I have also seen women starting their kitchen fires with plastic bags to make dinner for their family.

And while education and infrastructure are sorely needed in terms of waste management, I think there is also a blessing in disguise. For, I see the trash-filled streets of India as a possible future for the rest of the world. As we continue to increase our population and build spread-out communities, the land where we can bring our trash will decrease as our amount of trash increases. With this increase will we be forced to live with our trash, as well? The trash here also really makes one think about how much we do throw away. Imagine if we all had to live with the trash we produced on a daily basis in our backyard. Would the sight of what we actually throw away make us change our buying habits? Consider products for their packaging? Or even make us think twice before throwing something away?