International Political Will

Garbage is a problem that has plagued India for longer than most people have been alive.

Gandhi addressed it in his day, noting Indian’s penchant for keeping their houses immaculate yet caring little for anything outside of their doors. And this was 50 years before plastic.

Any area in India where people live is cursed with plastic. Bags, bottles, packaging – it’s visible everywhere. Surely the trash problem in India has multiplied exponentially in the last 20-30 years since the advent and proliferation of plastic.

I assumed that being inundated with garbage was a common plight that would be found in many developing countries – especially ones with a billion people. And, no doubt, some cause for the garbage crisis in India must be due to the law of large numbers.

But the disparity between litter in India and other developing countries I’ve been to – Cambodia, Thailand, Afghanistan, Costa Rica, Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda – seems to point to the opposite. These countries have more trash than in the U.S., but nothing – I mean nothing – on the scope and scale of India. Can all of it really be due to population size?

Why is it that Kampala, Uganda – a city of 1.4 million – has so little garbage in the streets, while Aurangabad, India, (and their 1.1 million people) is littered with trash?

Some people say higher income means more consumption, and, thus, more trash. Except 56 percent of Mumbai lives in the slums, and 40 percent of the city lives below the poverty line.

Others use the poor as a scapegoat. Except that theory would mean poorer cities – like Kabul or Kampala – would have more trash. They don’t.

For some reason – be it the inability of government to provide basic services, population size/density, education, consumption habits, etc. – Indians tend to litter more than others (at least in their own country).

One habit of some Mumbaikars – I’ve seen it dozens of times – is to tear up pieces of paper trash (usually unwanted advertisements handed out by someone on a sidewalk) and actually scatter the bits and pieces on the ground.

I once watched a man in a nice sedan roll down his window just enough to toss an entire newspaper out onto the street – and then roll his window up again. At least he didn’t tear it up into little pieces first…

But I digress into a rant.

These incidents happen with both the rich and the poor, which means solutions need to also address both groups. No matter who is doing the littering, what is needed – especially in India – is a movement to educate the public. Of course, the costs associated with such a campaign need to be taken into account – you can’t really just start fining people (especially the poor who are already living on less than $1.25 a day). So here’s a three-fold plan:

• Start local.

One of the common problems I see in India is that even if trash does make it into the bin, some poor man, woman, or child will come along and sift through the trash can, scattering everything on the ground looking for anything of value. Of course, they don’t put it back. If it is ever picked up, it’s done so haphazardly by the municipal waste management workers when they come to empty the bin.

I’ve noticed that the people sorting through the garbage often frequent the same bins. They live in the area, and return each day to the same trash cans.

Solution: Have the city pay these people to put the trash back into the bin when they’re done.

It’s should be easy enough to identify the regulars of a particular trash can. Surely anyone that desperate would be happy to earn 10-20 rupees a day for making sure the trash is put back in the dumpster. And that 10-20 rupees a day is probably less than the city is already paying the municipal workers to pick it up.

• Hold capitalism responsible.

Companies can still earn money while at the same time preserving and protecting the world they seek to profit from; in the long term, it’s in their best interest. Much of the trash is not only recyclable plastic, but is often identifiable – a Lay’s potato chip bag, an Aquafina water bottle, RMD pan masala wrappers.

Solution: Fine corporations and companies for the waste that is not disposed of properly.

Charge Aquafina for each bottle found that wasn’t in a recycle or trash bin. Fine RMD for the total weight of pan wrappers swept from the gutters and roadsides. When corporations (read: those with deep enough pockets to affect change) start becoming financially responsible for the trash they create in the course of doing business, believe me – change will come.

Which brings me to my last point:

• Educate the public.

Corporations won’t want to be responsible for the trash their customers leave behind, so they will want to create a consumer that disposes of waste properly. How to do that? The same way they sell the product in the first place.

Solution: Use advertising to promote environmental education on the same level it promotes consumption.

If Shahrukh Khan can sell Pepsi, he can sell recycling and waste management. Corporations will quickly realize that the same Bollywood celebrities and catchy advertising campaigns that generate profit can also reduce their chances of being fined if that product becomes litter.

Consumption is not going to go away. Unfortunately, neither is plastic. Solutions for waste management problems the world faces (and specifically India, for whatever reasons – population size, consumption levels, inept/corrupt government, etc.) are not only simple, but cost neutral. If corporations are held financially responsible for the trash created from their products, they will quickly find a way to mold consumers into environmental tree-huggers.

When something affects a corporation’s bottom line, amazing things happen.

Tags: profit, poverty, corporations, education, development

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