Anushka Manchanda Reveals How She Is Battling One-Time Use Plastic In Her Daily Life

We started the month of June with the crusade against plastic. We are plastic addicts, or to be precise, 'plasticoholics'. Our addiction to plastic has now become the worst thing that could happen to humanity.?We are very well aware of how plastic is messing up with our planet and ecosystem, and we CAN'T AFFORD to ignore it anymore.

We met singer Anushka Manachanda?who feels strongly about the environment and believes that must pay attention to everything that's happening around us because only when you are aware you can take?conscious, educated decisions.?

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We asked her if she leads a plastic-free life and how does she reduce her usage of plastic in her day-to-day life?

So, I realised that once you start paying attention, you start realising how much waste you actually produce. I started slow, gradually I realised that all the products in my bathroom were all in plastic packaging. Then, I started reading a little bit about this plastic is not bad because plastic actually has great qualities.

The problem is the one-time use plastic. That's bad because what we're trying to do is find an alternative to plastic and instead of plastic we are using paper. Paper ke liye paed katne padte hai and paed hai hi nahi and sab kaat rahe hai (For producing paper you need to cut trees. And there are no trees at all). I don't think that's a solution. The solution is basically a?three-word mantra: "Reuse, reduce and recycle". Whatever you use, you've got to ask yourself, can I use this again? Where does it come from??

She thinks bans like the #PlasticBan in Maharashtra are important for people to pay attention to plastic pollution as we are running out of time.

We need to educate people. The problem is that we have more than a billion people in our country and how are you going to educate all of them. When you see places like Singapore, you know, they have the whole city is clean because they made a rule and you're going to get fined if you throw plastic on the street or you throw litter on the street. What happened in Maharashtra when the authorities said that they're going to book you if you're not wearing a helmet? People were demanding safety, but one they knew they would be fined, everyone was wearing helmets.?

Now we have festivals like Ganpati, Durga Puja?coming up.?Plastic and thermocol?used for decoration will end up in the ocean. How do you think we should tackle this?

That's a sad thing, we do so many things in the name of faith and they are all affecting our environment. You don't have to use plastic to please God. You don't have to use material that will get into the ocean and screw everything up.

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This is how Anushka's trying to not be a 'plasticoholic'.

I am #NotAPlasticoholic. I'm trying not to be a plasticoholic. It's hard. But if you are committed to it, then you can do it. And there are a few simple things I think you can start with for women, especially because we create a lot of waste with our sanitary products. I think you can learn how to use a cup, or you can get biodegradable tampons and pads. Those still don't biodegrade, they still take a long time. Because in India, we don't segregate the waste. But, I do know that when you're travelling, it's hard to use a cloth pad. So, just for those days, but otherwise, you can get cloth pads. That's a really simple way to not be a plasticoholic. And then, I think you can start to reuse stuff around the house. Which means that things like your plastic toothbrushes instead of throwing them out, you know, you can use them to clean keyboards. You can use them to clean like get into places which are hard, you know, for you to dust and stuff, especially with equipment and then instead of buying a new plastic toothbrush by a bamboo toothbrush, you can use an ink pen which can be reused over and over again, not a plastic pen, that is a one time use. I think. I think the main thing you know if you don't want to be a plasticoholic is to reduce and stop using things that are only one-time use.

You can also join the fight against plastic by taking the #NotAPlasticoholic pledge today!?