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Environmental Degradation: Plastic V/s. Paper

Ms. Asema Siddiqui, Mahararshtra College, Mumbai.

Winner of the 2nd Prize at the
12th Dharam S. Hinduja Inter-College Essay Writing Competition for Lecturers

‘Where are the songs of spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue,

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn,

Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies,
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn,

Hedge crickets sing, and now with treble soft,

The red breast whistles from a garden croft
And gathering swallows twittering in the skies.’

To the Autumn (John Keats)

Gnats, lambs, crickets, robins, swallows – beautiful creatures, aren't they? A time will come
when the wailing of gnats, bleating of lambs, singing of hedge crickets, whistling of robins and
the twittering of swallows will no longer be the songs of spring. How will the generation today
answer posterity on questions about the extinction of the above species referred to by John
Keats in his poetry?

According to Wikipedia Encyclopaedia, environmental degradation is the deterioration of the
environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of
ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife and pollution. It is dened as any
change or disturbance to the environment perceived to be deleterious or undesirable. There
are many phenomena detrimental to the environment. But 'plastic' and 'paper' are the most

detrimental ones.
Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, as rapidly
increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world's ability to deal with
them. Every year about 8 million metric tons of plastic waste escapes into the oceans from
coastal nations. That's the equivalent of setting re garbage bags full of trash on every foot of
coastline around the world. According to the Ocean Conservancy in less than 10 years,
scientists predict there will be 250 million metric tons in the ocean and by 2050, there will be

“An ounce of practice is worth a thousand words.”
(Mahatma Gandhi) 97
2019-20