On an average, India consumes a whopping 16.5 million tonnes of plastic each year. To put that into a slightly simpler perspective, that is the weight of 41,25,000 elephants. Much of this plastic waste makes its way into landfills and garbage dumps, but a huge chunk of it is found in our coastal areas, plaguing not just the people who live there, but also the marine life whose habitat it destroys each passing day.
In September 2017, when Rabia Tewari and Indranil Sengupta moved into a new sea-facing house in Mumbai, they were able to witness firsthand the extent of devastation that plastic waste is bringing on. Out of great disappointment and a greater lack of support from the authorities, the couple took it upon themselves to give back to the environment and this is how #MahimBeachCleanUp was born. It soon proliferated into something much bigger than a couple picking up garbage, it became a citizen movement. 15,000 volunteers strong, so far, #MahimBeachCleanUp has managed to clear 10,00,000 kgs of marine pollution.
However, the duo always knew their cause is much bigger than a clean-up movement. The only solution to end marine and plastic pollution is to uproot the problem altogether, and encourage the country to go plastic-free.
And so they founded Ethico, a platform for like-minded people to continue their environmentally-conscious journey and also for encouraging others to switch their mindset to a similar one. With sustainability, responsibility and initiative action at its core, Ethico is much more than a facilitation platform. The founders take charge of various projects and push the idea of ethical consumption and practices. From the basics of how to switch from ‘convenient’ to ‘conscious’ to encouraging the purchase of sustainable lifestyle products, the platform covers all bases. Additionally, giving similar people and their efforts due credit, Ethico unfurls the entrepreneurial journeys en route towards a greener and safer planet. With its ‘Green carpet’ segment, it also applauds the initiatives of influential individuals.
Rabia and Indranil say that they comprehend that they are not alone in this fight. There are thousands, even lakhs of people who are involved in this march towards a cleaner and healthier environment for all. As part of a community willing to make small and large sacrifices for a sustainable future, they impose upon themselves the responsibility to inspire others to do so as well. Converting their battle at Mahim beach into a war against plastic pollution, the enthusiastic and hopeful pair aim to bring about a change, not just in behaviour, but also people’s mindset.
It is not a daily occurrence to see someone ready to get down and dirty, knee-deep in the muck and surrounded by trash of all kinds. This, however, should not be the case. Ideally, there should be more of us out there, taking the matter into our own hands to eradicate plastic pollution. But with something so deep-rooted and practices that date back decades, one must realise that clearing plastic from undesirable locations is the absolute tip of the iceberg. What we, as a community, need to agree on is the need to abolish the occurrence of accumulation of plastic waste.
The best way to do that? Simply don’t use it. Ethico, that provides all the possible information on how to live plastic-free, might be a good start.
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