Reuse to use and throw A shift in the habit, a dent to the planet

 Reuse to use and throw

A shift in the habit, a dent to the planet

In the past, plastic use was lower, and plastic smiles were rare. I was born in the 1970s, when reuse was a way of life—not because we were intellectually stimulated by environmental protection, but due to the crisis in our parents' wallets.

I remember a small piece of chalk that became the polish for our white canvas shoes. Our ink pens were refilled, so we didn’t litter the planet with "refills"—which were called refills but couldn't actually be refilled. Our blades were real men’s blades, lasting many shaves, and we didn’t throw plastic razors into landfills. We used to carry our own bottles to buy oil, flasks to buy coffee, and our own boxes to buy hotel food—and we never paid parcel charges.

Although we lived through what felt like a crisis, the planet was abundant, with minimal pollution. Our torn socks were used to polish our shoes—socks that never grew small, but were outgrown by our own growing feet. We even used those socks to season our cricket bats by putting a ball inside, tying it to a rope, and hitting it. Cricket lovers will cherish this memory.

Even when film was edited in the lab, the cut pieces became short films we’d buy and magnify under a lens on a sunny day. Poorly cut or overprinted labels on matchboxes became toys. Sometimes we were called "wasteful," but we never wasted anything. An elder brother’s T-shirt was passed down to the younger brother as family property with pride. A mother’s old clothes were used to lift hot vessels from the stove. Coconut fibre scrubbed our utensils. In fact, the starch from cooked rice was used to stiffen cotton clothes.

Old calendars became one-sided, rough notebooks. The barber used daily calendar sheets to collect lather during shaving. We never saw anything go to waste. But today, what we see is waste in the name of “use and throw,” waste of time in the name of reels, and quick divorces like disposable gadgets. Just reflect on your own behaviour: how many use-and-throw products do you use in your life? See how you can reduce them.

Slowly, the world is losing values and principles that cannot be passed to the next generation. At least let us hand over a planet with lower pollution to future generations.

M.L. Narendra Kumar