There are two kinds of people in this world: one who indulge in an armchair and social media activism, and others who believe in taking affirmative action to bring about real change and act as a mirror to our society.??
Meet 31-year-old Abhimanyu Chakravorty, the man who decided to question the status quo and challenge the everyday use of single-use plastic!
This is during a Plogging drive with an organisation in Luang Prabang called Trash hero
So what did he do to take action? He undertook a solo motorcycle ride through India and travelled to five countries - Myanmar - Thailand- Laos - Cambodia - Nepal - to promote what he had been doing in New Delhi for the past year: plogging, a mix of jogging and picking up trash. This is his way to galvanise individuals and communities to tackle the menace of plastic pollution.? ?
Abhimanyu, who started his journey called #PledgeToPlog on September 12, 2018, is now back and he reveals why he took the trip. ¡°I was appalled at the apathy of people towards plastic pollution and waste. We have resigned ourselves to believe that once we dispose off our trash, it goes away. But it never goes away just like that,¡± says Chakravorty.
Plogging drive in Phnom Penh with collaboration partner GoGreen Cambodia
The tipping point for him was when he saw pictures of a 10-feet-long sperm whale that washed up dead on a beach in Spain with 29 kg of plastic waste inside its belly.
This is when Abhimanyu realised this needs to stop.
He says India¡¯s waste management challenges mimics its Southeast Asian neighbours. While speaking to Indiatimes, he said, ¡°India¡¯s garbage conundrum isn¡¯t new. Our present scenario is either to burn garbage or dump. Our situation mimics our neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, which are home to four of the world¡¯s biggest plastic polluters and don¡¯t have the requisite waste management infrastructure to cope with the surge in plastic garbage.¡±
So a trip of this magnitude made sense to him as a starting point to share India¡¯s knowledge of waste management with these countries and learn some of their solutions as well.
Here he is Plogging with an organisation called Doko Recyclers from Nepal along with school students from The Creative Academy in Kirtipur, Kathmandu!
According to him, while public education to prevent littering is very important, proper management of litter fails to holistically address the unsustainable consumption of resources which are involved in manufacturing single-use disposable goods. ¡°If we can prevent the generation of disposable products as much as possible, it definitely reduces the amount of money needed for managing trash. Prevention is better than cure.¡±
But his decision to execute this 3-month long plastic pollution project called #PledgeToPlog wasn¡¯t easy by any means.
Chakravorty says the ideation for the trip started as early as March 2018, but the issue was funding. He had approached some sponsors but none came through. ¡°I had to fund everything from my own pocket, spent all my life savings on this but I knew this had to be done,¡± he revealed.
Earlier last year, he had started with plogging drives with his community called Plogga India around his colony and public parks in South Delhi to create awareness.
Soon, running in his neighbourhood and picking up plastic trash led him to think about a larger issue: of improper waste management practices and the social stigma behind picking up trash. Three months after doing this, he decided to have a larger goal in mind and started planning a region-wide trip to spread awareness.
¡°We wake up every day seeing plastic being used, and disposed of off so much so that we have stopped asking pertinent questions like, Where does plastic come from? Where will it go once it ends its life cycle? What happens to it once it is picked up by waste pickers? Does it get recycled?¡± he said.
Presented project at the Chandrapur high school in Guwahati
On asking him about his initiative and why did he choose these specific countries, Abhimanyu said, ¡°The central purpose of the 5-country tour was to help communities think differently about trash, especially how they dispose of single-use plastics. India, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Nepal have similar waste management issues relating to collection, segregation and recycling so I decided to travel to these countries and understand how they perceive plastic pollution, while also promoting my #pledgetoplog campaign. So I speak to the local population at all these countries to thread together a narrative on plastic pollution.¡±
Abhimanyu explained how he managed to create awareness by giving plogging sessions at schools, NGOs, etc. He said, ¡°I travelled through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Nagaland and Manipur and into Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Nepal. I plogged with schools, NGOs to clean up their surroundings and drill in the idea of waste-segregation as part of long-term behaviour change.¡±
At the India-Myanmar border
He also gave a presentation on plastic pollution, which also gives examples of some Indian cities that have streamlined their own waste management systems as an example for others to emulate. ¡°I told them how waste-to-energy plants are not the solution to tackling waste management and put emphasis on reducing, reusing and recycling as much as possible.¡±
The Journey was not that easy
¡°One of the biggest challenges was to have collaborations with schools, and NGOs in place for me in advance to carry out my activities. And this took me good 3-4 months of constantly following up with my partners in these countries. Thankfully most of my collaborations came through because I was able to reach all the places well in time and had a wonderful reception from all.¡±
Most of his collaboration partners, he says, were very intrigued with the idea of Plogging- because it¡¯s a unique way of taking care of your environment and also easy to do. ¡°Plogging could also be explained easily to schools, communities and NGOs. It¡¯s a very simple activity. So people loved its simplicity and the message behind it. They asked questions like what you do with the waste picked up after Plogging, the waste situation in India, how good recycling is in India, why to choose South East Asia for your trip, and whether India has any solutions to share among others.¡±
Group photo with doko recyclers and Creative Academy school
Communities will drive the next big change in waste management
¡°Now that my project is over, my focus will be on collaborating with schools and colleges to initiate them into the larger Plogging movement. Besides, I will be working with societies and communities in and around New Delhi to not only clean up their localities, but also educate them on what we are still not doing: waste segregation at source from our homes so that we not only reduce our own waste by composting organic waste at home but also send only inorganic waste to landfills. I believe that communities and societies will drive the next big change in waste management if done properly.¡±
Recognition from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
One of the highlights of his project was the UNEP recognition. The environment body of the United Nations did an article on his plogging project under their #SolveDifferent plastic pollution campaign.
We wish Abhimanyu all the success for this initiative.
If you wish to join him in the plogging drives, Click Here