India's trash mountains
Ravidas in New Delhi
is a slum like no other. Its alleys are
spotless, its drains regularly washed down with water and its houses painted in
bright crayon colors and decorated with plants. There are no fetid
open sewers brimming with human waste. Piles of trash do not line every alley.
The residents of this proud community run a tight, environmentally conscious
ship. "Everyone is
working together to keep it clean because this is where they live," said
Kishwar Jahan, 60, the self-appointed leader of this 350-person slum in the
east of the Indian capital. "If you walk
further down from our house it is dirty because people are not responsible
enough," she said.
Ravidas' residents
know that India has a trash problem and are trying to do their part to fix it.
India consumed an
estimated 15.5 million tons of plastic in 2016-17, according to PlastIndia Foundation, an organization of
major associations and institutions connected with plastic. That number is
predicted to increase to 20 million tons by 2019-20.
While one of Jahan's
four sons gives a goat a soapy bath nearby, a man walks past carrying a basket
of plastic and other household waste. The plastic will be removed
from the community, but residents
have few good options for where
it ends up.There is no processing
of waste in most Indian cities, according to the Central Pollution Board, and in some
cases, trash is simply burned in open dump yards on the main highway.Most likely, what is
collected in Ravidas will end up on one of the huge landfills around New Delhi,
where non-biodegradable materials mix with recyclable plastics -- a mounting
symbol of India's trash turmoil... read more:
