We are hereby launching a series which, as the title suggests, will guide conscientious readers to change gears for adopting a sustainable living. Through this series, we shall introduce you to ideas and people amidst us who are working in this direction.
The first introduction in this series is of Sunil Jain (6081). Sunil ji is a veteran in the plastic packaging industry. Plastic and sustainability might seem arch enemies to the untrained eye but that is where he can guide us.
Afterall, the only true nemesis of sustainability is the consumerist mindset and not any particular material, especially not a useful one like plastic.
Sunil ji is an engineer both by training and by personality, a naturally inquisitive individual. He is a Mechanical Engineer from BITS Pilani who gravitated to the plastic packaging industry in the 1980s.
Sunil ji is now associated with Rajoo Engineers Ltd., a renowned plastic processing machinery manufacturer based in Rajkot.
Situated as Sunil ji is from the vantage point of creating the machines that manufacture plastic packaging, he holds the point of view that it’s not plastic itself that is the problem but the way this plastic is used or rather misused.
“The Plastic industry is fully empowered with the technology and the machines needed to recycle and reuse every piece of polymer”, Sunil ji positively points out. But the systems and consumer are failing to ensure that these resources (for they are not waste!) find their way back to the manufacturer.
The problem, he correctly outlines, is not that we use plastic but that we use it rampantly and dispose it irresponsibly. If you mostly do carry your refillable bottle but used that mineral water bottle the onetime but ensured you did not litter it on the road, rather disposed it through a channel that will end at a recycle station; You did the right thing!
“Even if we use biodegradable materials like paper, or corn starch-based packaging as callously as we are using plastics today, we will create problems”.
So, the solution lies in Reduce and then Segregate to ensure it gets recycled. Thank you to Sunil ji for pointing us in the right direction!
by Roli Thapar (Flat No 11142, 9566043006)
