Sustainable changes

In last few years there has been a lot of awareness towards sustainable living. I had been reading a lot about what can I do to make certain changes in my daily life so that I can contribute towards sustainability. One such change that was easily was switching to steel bottles.

Before talking about the Steel bottles let me first tell you about how it was since the childhood. When I was a child and I started going to the school we had visited or shop for buying tiffin and water bottle. A child who did not know much about the harm caused by plastic, I went ahead and chose the most colourful looking tiffin and water bottle. At that time all the school supplies would be made out of plastic. It was not even known that whether the plastic has been approved to be used for food and beverage. Yet that was the only option with us. All throughout my childhood I had used plastic bottles and tiffins.

When I was in college Tupperware was spreading its wings in India. I had received a Tupperware tiffin box from one of my relatives. It was plastic but it was food grade approved. It appeared to be a high quality plastic. After that my home was filled with various Tupperware items. There were tiffins, water bottles, tumblrs, jars, mugs, food containers in my home which were made by Tupperware. It was not just my house but almost all middle class households would have plethora of items from Tupperware. These products would be advertised as eco friendly. They would say that these products are reusable and they can be recycled into making new plastic items. This products made all mothers happy because they looked to good and were easy to clean. They also made the younger generation happy because it was supposed to be eco friendly. Tupperware would last several years without losing its colour. However the students who have studied science would definitely know how plastic leaches. I was desperate to search for an alternative which would be sustainable and can replace the Tupperware plastic at my home.

Glass was never an alternative because of its potential to break (because we have Butterfingers). But then I stumbled upon the item that I loved the most. I found Steel bottles on the online portal from where I shop. The Steel bottles had a lot of advantage over the plastic bottles. First advantage was that the Steel is non reactive and it does not react with food. It definitely is much safer than plastic. Second advantage was durability. If the Steel hits the ground it would not change its shape or break. This is where it is superior than glass. And of course Steel does not cause pollution like plastic. I understood this and decided to switch to the Steel bottles.

One by one I replaced each plastic bottle which was there in my home with steel bottles. Now my home does not have a single plastic bottle. My second initiative was to gift Steel bottles to my relatives. On the occasion of Diwali I had gifted Steel bottles to my cousins as well as nephews and nieces. Everyone was delighted to receive artistically painted Steel bottles without realising that it was a sustainable initiative.

This was my initiative towards sustainability. I hope you begin small changes towards sustainability as well.

It was the year 2005 when the city of Mumbai realized how horrible the plastic bags can be. The plastic bags had clogged a lot of your tunnels which led to the flood in July 2005. As a corrective and preventative measure the government had decided to reduce the use of plastic bags. Though it was impossible to completely ban or stop the use of plastic bags. I was in a complete agreement with the government's measured. I decided to take a step further.

I had the stitching machine at my home. I decided to stitch the Cotton bags. This would completely cut down the inflow of plastic bags which we would get from fruit or vegetable vendors. One by one I started stitching cotton bags at home. To stitch tgese cotton bags I did not bring any fabric from outside. I would use the fabric at home.

Later I decided to take one step even further. I started using the scrap clothes to make the cotton bags. If the bed sheet was torn then I would take it to stitch my cloth bag. If the pillow cover was worn out I would take it to stitch another bag. If I had pieces of scrap fabric then I would stitch those together and turn that into a bag. I had also taken old t-shirts to stitch the Cotton bags.

Using the Cotton bags was not just limited to a sustainable habit. This would give me and opportunity to discover the creativity. It would be an amazing process to take the scrap fabric and stitching them together to form a long cloth so that I could make a bag out of it. This creative hobby would take away any boredom. After a creating such interesting and useful art projects I would feel relaxed and delighted. Also the bags would always stand out. At the supermarkets there would never be confusion in identifying the back because it would look different from anybody elses back.

This was one sustainable habit that I put my time and efforts into. That were a lot of blouse piece clothing at my home which we were not using. All those were converted into the cloth bags. I did not limit the use of cloth bag to myself and my family. Whenever any guest used to visit my home while they would leave I would give them of cloth bag as a gift. I would tell them that these are made from the leftover or scrap fabrics and they are handmade. Most guest would get delighted to receive cute handmade gift. They woyld appreciate the thoughtfulness of giving away such a wonderful and eco friendly gift. They would like it because it was useful. After all everybody likes to use different bags to get groceries.

This was one of my sustainable habits that had been I believe of great importance. Not only that I have reduced the use of plastic bags but I now have very usable attractive bags to take with me at shopping companions.

Another point that I would like to highlight is that in one of the corporate competitions on sustainability this initiative of mine won first prize. The reason was simple. This was an easy sustainable solution which did not require much investment and cost. It was budget friendly and easy.

If you have scrap fabrics or spare fabrics at your home I would urge you to use them into making cloth bags. Such small steps with help us in the long run.