Towards a Minimalist lifestyle – Waste Management

How did Solutions Create the Problems

Isn’t it strange that in this relentless march towards ‘progress’ and ‘evolution’, we acquire & accumulate goods, while simultaneously seeking ‘Better’ and ‘Newer’ and in our bid to fill all those gaping holes in our lives we never look at the overflowing garbage that has choked up the beautiful spaces of Mother Earth.

Which brings me to the burning topic of the day ‘Waste Management’. It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic because Optimal use of natural resources has been the credo from time immemorial. As early as three decades back I have seen a simple coconut tree providing out of its ripened fruits & fallen branches, brooms for sweeping, mats as a rain cover, the shells as ladles, the husk as scrubber… I can go on & on. So when did we replace this with plastic brooms, scrubs, synthetic sheets etc? Was it when we first looked at all byproducts as waste? Was it when we were convinced by our new knowledge based on research sponsored by faceless corporations and marketed through lengthy arguments using slick phrases to cloak cold-blooded profit bottom lines & crass materialism, that in order to preserve our natural resources & protect the environment we need to find alternates? And what was the brilliant alternate found to save and preserve our trees: plastic! Bright colorful made easily available plastic! And now we are so busy trying to save the planet from the alternative that we have chosen to forget what has led to the destruction in the first place.

And we repeat the same mistakes by finding new causes to focus on. Take leather for example.. one of the oldest industries dating back to when Mankind first learned to hunt for food. One of the best & earliest ‘Waste Management Systems’ in the world which is an entire industry by itself. Now under fire for cruelty among utter things. So once again the propagation of alternates is underway. ( more of this in my next blog)

How is it or rather Why is it that some simple practices that were followed since millennia are now at the receiving end of ire from the same Green Activists & Environmentalists who want to save the planet. I have often wondered if it’s textbook knowledge & ivory tower lives that underlie not just their protest but even their solutions or is it just arrogance? Why is it so difficult to look at history with a balanced view and understand & learn from the mistakes committed in the past in the pursuit of manufactured causes fuelled by vested interest?