Residents do their duty, promote plastic-free July campaign in Chennai

Joining over two million people from 159 countries, several enterprising Chennaiites are taking up the #ChooseToRefuse challenge to reduce consumption of single-use plastics this month, and beyond.

But what’s admirable is that the Plastic Free July campaign has not just been taken up by socially-conscious youngsters having come across the trend on social media, but also homemakers.

Vanaja Krishnan, a housewife said she came across the concept earlier this week on Facebook, and immediately resolved to give it a shot. “I roped in a few of my friends from around the neighbourhood to see if we could be plastic-free as much as possible for at least a month. We accumulated all the plastic covers, milk sachets, and other plastic cans/containers in the house.

E-waste was also gathered.” It’s not just about changing one’s behaviour, but ensuring a wider movement is undertaken.

Veena Balakrishnan, a fashion designer in the city, recently got married in a plastic free, zero-waste wedding that she hoped would motivate the community. “We really believe in making conscious decisions about the way we live and Indian weddings are known for producing a lot of trash. We did not buy new wedding attire for both the bride and the groom, kept it to organic and simple decoration, avoided plastic and single-use disposables such as water bottles. Extremely negligible plastic was produced at the end of the wedding which was also sent to a local scrap vendor for recycling.”

“With the news about Tamil Nadu banning plastic from Jan 2019, we are also trying to work with large organisations now to help them reduce their single-use disposables - like plastic bags, plastic cutlery, straws etc,” said Veena, who is part of a start-up that promotes sustainable living.