Kathmandu Metropolitan city has long been facing pollution problems. It is not the government totally responsible, neither is the public. The solution relies somewhere in the middle that can never be achieve in present context. Being Positive in this regards, I hope taking time is better option but not with zero effort. Stakeholders like industries, companies, government, organizations, activists and citizens themselves are really aware and alert in this context. But well said "Better Deserve than Desire", no effort is seen that fulfills the call of the time that makes us eligible for the better environment as stated in the NATURAL RIGHTS in Interim Constitution. Rights are no more distribute for free. Right Conduct of Duties and responsibilities makes us eligible for the preservation of Rights.
Plastic has improved the lifestyle and behaviors of modern age people. It's hyped that plastic users should know what they are dumping in the environment needlessly to say where these plastics come from. Every technology introduced cannot promise the safe disposal of all of its wastes or products. Some methods are easier to be acted morally.
In a city like Kathmandu, they can sell plastic products but cannot sell the idea of better disposal as it costs a lot but still seems to be giving less. One industry producing polythene bags cannot invest a large portion of its income to collect it back. Attaching externality costs to such low priced products is not possibly effective as public do not want to pay for what they are getting for free. So, environment friendly economic policy for polythene bags seems embarrassing for such businesses.
Government can easily add pollution tax to whichever industries to every extent of visibility but implementation of the collected fund to control pollution is a topic of illusion. Public cannot expect this sincere activity from their government.
Highly interested teams of NGOs and Activists can introduce numbers of local scale technologies for varieties of solutions. But the common trend is, rushing from the technology trigger to high peaks of inflated expectations things work perfectly, but after the Trough of Disillusionment approaches zero, limited economy of such organizations cannot withstand to continue the Enlightenment and Productivity and the technology crashes somewhere before achievement.
Finally the responsibility comes to citizens where desire and will cannot approach their need to act for the measures. It strikes every mind that "What I collect separately in my bin is not what I see in the roads. There is somebody else who is never ready to actively obey the moral methods, Why just me?" This category is not the one who is actively participating in the control but the one who if mobilized with innate will, can really produce the change.
Plastic bags are not the real pollution problem in solid wastes. It is responsible for degrading the aesthetic value only. But when people pack their waste in such polythene bags and dump outside their house, these bags are perfect insulators and creates havoc of degraded wastes that attracts nothing else but scavengers. In a heap of dumped waste, most of the organic wastes can be degraded or decomposed in landfill sites. But when these wastes are packed in polythene bags, trash lifter and haulers get annoyed to segregate because it's not just few bins of waste but trucks of wastes that is not possible to segregate at hauling stations. Talking about pollution in your neighbor, if wastes were not packed in polythene bags, it won't smell so offensive.
"If somebody in your community is collecting plastics separately, why cant you? How expensive is it for you to segregate these plastics?" the reality is NOTHING. It is not the price that prevents people from acting morally, it is just luxury. But time never waits until you realize that finally, your luxury made you pay the price.
Back to the years, when there were no rickshaw trash collecting systems, the price was zero. Municipality's truck used to come to collect trash from major dumping sites. People raised their lifestyle as well as waste production but still it costs nothing. But when people started dumping wastes carelessly, now, people faced problems. They never realized that their luxury was ready to charge them a price. And municipality was not so highly equipped to increase their service. So entrepreneurs established their niche to collect the wastes. Now every household are paying around 100-200 rupees for door to door collection.
But collection is not the solution; there are ways to recycle solid wastes of different categories only if it is segregated. But recycling is not the matter of interest for the public. Public wants ambient environment. For this, people should behave as an active citizen to put their will into action. The statement is clear; "Pay your luxury or pay the price!". But the price won't be small when things will go out of control.
To project an imaginary situation, If plastic pollution crosses its limit, government will be forced to ban its use and public will have to shift towards expensive alternatives as polythene is available for free in market. And in that situation, maybe people will have to arrange another 100-200 rupees for monthly market bags consumption. There are lots of externalities that may act as a factor in that case.
What I am thinking is, if active citizens can really feel the importance of ambient environment and feels it really important to release some issues from tomorrow's major problems. We can manage things that government, industries or large organizations are always confused around with.
I am sure; my practice of using environment friendly bags, segregating plastics from my waste and never dumping plastics carelessly will produce a safe environment for me. And I want to share it with my entire neighbor, my society and my city.
Better Alternatives are always Available.
