Bangalore, the waste-valley of India

Plastic bags, glass bottles, food waste, shoes and all what your fantasy can suggest to you are in every part of this country. Probably this is caused by the primordial instinct to trace his passage, probably by ignorance of what is pollution, probably is just laziness and careless about the nature.

The only sure thing is that India is being stifled by waste and Indians need to find a quick solution this problem.

In the city of Bangalore there isn't any trash-bin. The educated citizens dump their trashes in the corners of the streets, where every morning trucks came to pick it up. The other citizens simply throw the trash every where.

It is enough to pass at half kilometer from these waste-corners to smell the horrible scent. The crow are copious there and the dogs are fighting with the hope to find something to eat. Also the cow, the holy cows are dying everyday because of the plastic-bags they are eating; in the same time the politician are busy to find the way to avoid the cow slaughter. This is the example of the big contradiction that India is. 

The guilt of the waste invasion come from three different directions:

The first and the less culpable source of wild-waste come from the rural people and the low-educated ones.

The plastic invasion came really fast in India and without give the opportunity to these people to know hot to manage the plastic waste and the danger related to this material. By being used to eat bananas and throw the peel in the floor, there was no difference to them to do the same with a chips packet or a water bottle.

The second cause of this waste invasion came from the government institution like BBMP that seems not interested to provide the city with trash-bins and in education of waste management.

There are only NGOs, like Environment Support Group (ESG), that are working hard to educate the citizens to differentiate the waste in plastic waste, organic waste, paper waste and glass waste. They are also doing pilot project in some area of the city where they provide vermi-compost to transform the organic waste in earth reach of nutriments. A recent research reveals that around 70-80% of the daily waste of the city of Bangalore is organic. By collecting it separately it will be possible to avoid the smell that the waste produce (it is the water on it that give this characteristic fragrance), to avoid the animals around the waste-land and the diseases that are augmenting directly proportioned with the augment of trashes.

The third and biggest cause of all the waste in the city are all the educated people that are continually dumping trash out the window of the car or in the floor when walking.

It is enough to have a look in the street that bring the student of IIJNM from the hostel to the college. It is impossible to do more that five steps without see one plastic bag. Going to the akka shop is the same and passed it, going in direction of the village the street became incredibly clean.

The question now is: “Who are the educated people? Are We, as post-graduated students, or the villagers?”. The answer came directly on my hand one day, when one of my colleague launched out of the bus window the empty box of noodles. After asking him to take it up he replied to me: “I can do what I want because this is my country and this is my college because I am paying for that”.

I was not offended for what this person told me but I was astonished for what came out the mouth of an educated person. This kind of class have a big influence to the lower one and they can do the big difference in the country, investing in time, effort and money to resolve the problem of the waste.

The cause and the solution of the problem of India are the new generations that are coming.

They have to became aware of the huge responsibility they have to change the world.

They have to bring the country to the big change, conscious that all the big revolution started from small steps.