Go natural, the watchwords

What is the alternative to a plastic way of life? GEETA PADMANABHAN lists the adverse effects of plastic and advocates the use of eco-friendly materials.

YOU NOTICE it because it is the only quiet vehicle on the busy road. And it is huge. It beseeches you in bold letters to go back to your roots to lead a healthy life.

The mobile exhibition the truck carries is the latest in the attempts by the Pollution Control Board to educate Chennaiites on the ill-effects of plastic. The information-loaded truck trundles its way to the Elliots Beach Road. Help for its efforts comes from unexpected quarters. There is a sharp shower of rain and people scurry into the exhibition 'hall'. And there, they are given a printed list of the consequences of plastic use and plans for a plastic-free environment. It is shamefully simple. Go back to grandma's ways.

The rain clears and the crowd melts. The breeze carries snatches of the debate. The display has started a dialogue. Will it translate into action?

Dr. Sheila Rani Chunkath (Chairperson, Pollution Control Board), the passion behind the presentation, is clearly hopeful. "The idea is to spread awareness of the damaging effects of plastic. We now live in the plastic age. We don't just use articles made of plastic, we throw them away. There are alternatives to a plastic way of life. We just have to revert to what we were doing before being hit by the plastic deluge."

The exhibition throws up ideas to do away with plastic used in our daily life. Use stainless steel and glass tumblers where they can be washed. At other places (like offices) switch over to paper cups. At weddings and other functions go back to 'donnais' made of banana and other leaves. Beautiful plates made of dried banana stem are available in all sizes. Use long knitted socks for hanging fruits for display. Use cloth or paper bags for shopping. Always carry your own bag when you go shopping. Use a reed mat and not the fancy plastic ones which remain very hot in summer anyway. Store things in aluminium and steel containers. Switch over to paper napkins.

"I took a plastic audit of my home," Dr. Chunkath tells me, "and it falls into three groups: 1. Throwaway plastic - thin shopping bags, the kind the vegetable and fruit-sellers use. 2. Container plastic - baskets, buckets and drums. 3. Packaging plastic - used by shopkeepers for grocery, medicines, biscuits, candy, etc. I find I have total control over the first two categories and can replace them very easily. But, for the third we need legislation. A law is being evolved to stop plastic packaging and I am sure the issue will be sorted out. Let us all first ask how we can reduce the plastic menace at home. It will not be difficult to make this shift once we recognise the dreadful consequences of dioxin."

DIOXIN. The word stares at you when the smoke behind the MTC bus clears. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has plenty of information on this. Dioxin is a generic term for a group of suspected carcinogens extremely toxic to both humans and animals. (It can cause cancer in the lung, liver and stomach and non- Hodgkin's lymphoma and is a million times more toxic than arsenic). It is an unwanted by-product of the manufacture and burning of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics. The term includes the potent chemical 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) and dioxin-like substances, including furans.

Dioxin is a very stable chemical resisting natural breakdown processes for long periods of time, maybe 30 years. Instead of breaking down, even small amounts of dioxin released into the environment build up higher levels over time. The good news is it is not soluble in air or water. But the bad news is it is powerfully attracted to fats and oils. (Thin plastic bags give out mcg of dioxin). As a result dioxins accumulate in the tissues of living things. More than 90 per cent of our dioxin exposure comes through the food supply - particularly through fish, meats and dairy products. We all carry high dioxin concentrations in our bodies.

What happens then? Listen to Dr. Jayam Kannan, a city gynaecologist. "We cannot effectively detoxify our bodies or get rid of dioxins. Now these chemicals can be detected in all our organs, with high concentrations in our fat and mother's milk. Dioxin can cross the placenta during the most important part of child development. So even before birth, the child is exposed to dioxins that have built up in the mother's body." She has more facts: "Dioxin also impacts the reproductive systems of men lowering sperm count and leading to testicular cancer. Exposure during foetal or infant development causes hormonal changes, birth defects (like cleft palate) and reduced growth. More alarmingly, tiny doses of dioxin can have effects that become obvious only later in life. Impaired intellectual development, infertility and reproductive problems at puberty are all linked to this killer chemical. It can lead to endometriosis (painful cell growth outside the womb) and child diabetes."

Where do we go from here? To controlling plastic manufacture. But the plastic lobby has news for you. "We are an environment- friendly trade. (They are branded as 'Green Industries'.) When you use plastic you save paper and so the trees," argue plastic manufacturers. "With a ban on plastics 8.5 lakh people will be thrown out of jobs." The PCB puts this figure at only 6000. In plastic manufacturing units in and outside the city ('hellholes' according to Dr. Chunkath) young people are constantly exposed to dioxin fumes. "Burning plastic may be bad though proper incineration can generate energy," the lobby concedes. "So recycle it."

"But plastic has a short molecular structure," says the Chairperson. "Unlike glass, it does not remain the same when heated up. Plastic can only be downcycled." "Then bury it!" orders the group sounding like the famous French queen. "Where are the landfills? When it rains, plastic is a mess. And we all know what it does to the soil."

She has more on this. "Do you know it is legal to import plastic waste? While developed countries dump their plastic waste here, we pick it up to make resin (the process releases dioxin). Check out the wrappings of imported biscuits. They are marble paper."

"We make plastic lumber," say manufacturers. But how many plastic fence posts would you need? Eventually you need to bury those too.

There is something else you should know. There are other areas like paper and pulp bleaching, waste incinerators, organochlorine-based industries and manufacture of pesticides that belch out dioxin. But these can convert to a non-chlorine base. Plastic cannot.

True, life is comfortable with plastic, but with overwhelming information about its harmful effects, it is time we started thinking of alternatives. Change your lifestyle. Or there will be no life left for styling.

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