Learning from the plastic bag

Plastic bags have become collector’s items in Oman as shops have embraced paper or cloth bags for shopping while in Oman in 2021 and onwards.

It might be a blow to the plastic industry but great for the environment. Once again we have no one but us to be blamed as we went overboard with dependence on the plastic bags. Its durability became its problem. Not to forget its impact on the environment.

We never thought too much about the way we disposed of it and soon we found them waving from tree tops, floating in water, gathering at the shore, entangled with sea animals and rolling with the wind on the sand dunes.

And oh, we needed a plastic bag for everything from carrying a fruit juice to vegetables. Uses of plastic bags were many once they reached home from groceries. But the other villain is still around — the plastic straws. The straws go astray too and quite often find their way to the ocean. In Oman, some of the five star hotels have made the switch over from plastic straws to other types on their own.

So most probably, children born this year may never know that we were once so dependent on plastic bags. There were even charming flowers made out of plastic bags.

When we are not willing to learn from mistakes the inevitable happens. For plastic bags it is a ban, but in life it is a natural shift of our life’s path sometimes so swift that we are left with a shock and aftershock only to slowly gain the ability to get a grip on life.

A pandemic sent a panic button ringing throughout the world economies because of the uncertainties it created. For the first time the analysts could not give a clear forecast or predict. Come to think of it the farmers across the globe regularly go through the trauma of unpredictability when it comes to droughts and floods.

If you look at the situations closely the striking common factor is the balance. We went overboard with plastic bags, we were not quick enough to get into the defensive mode against COVID until fines were established and as for the farmers what they seek is an ideal weather and policies too.

From lessons learnt it would be nice if innovators also come up with solutions to be applied when their innovation becomes a problem.

We do have solutions in recycling but the strange factor is when it comes to recycling and solar energy the technology has not come into the level of affordability. Could it be that we have not been hungry for it?

Cutting down trees to make paper might have been a problem but there is a solution of planting trees simultaneously. Paper being a natural product and biodegradable has made it back now. Just like the popular saying goes — ‘Never say never again.’

Interesting is it not to note how anything in nature has a way to go back to nature while any of the material that is manmade becomes eventually toxic waste? A toxic waste with no place to go sometimes stranded in oceans and no shores to anchor, and if it does then it is a ticking disaster.

The only solution is to find a way to dispose of the waste safely even before you make the product commercially available.

And the same goes for our thoughts — let them not be unnatural, let them not be toxic and let us try not to dump it on others. Let not the negative thoughts float around or hang on the tree. Maybe sometimes there might be people to help you with it, eventually they will return it back or for that matter even decide enough is enough saying our thoughts are too toxic to handle.

Maybe it is time to start the work from the other way around —consequences then to the origin.

When lost let us be inspired by nature.

Lakshmi Kothaneth

lakshmiobserver@gmail.com