Exactly at what point do we transition from feeling sorry about a problem and become a part of the solution?

This was running through my mind after having participated in a business meeting that contributed about 300 plastic bottles to our environment. This number is but a drop in the overall 100 million bottles that we thrash globally every single day. It’s appalling, to say the least!

Usually, I would feel bad about an incident like this, crib about it to family / friends & forget about it in a few days. This time it was different.

Soon after, I identified a series of events that generate a similar number of plastic bottles every month into the environment. I suggested to my colleagues that we ought to stop this & switch to a better alternative. Most of them supported it whole heartedly. And thus, we have collectively initiated a change.. a change for the better.

Why did I deviate from my usual routine to do what I did. A big part can be attributed to a social media post similar to this by someone I admire. That post was on top of my mind & when an opportunity cropped up, I took action.

Hence this post. In the hope that it will inspire & prompt some more action. It’s a complex issue & needs a lot more of us to be a part of the solution.

DID YOU KNOW

1. It takes at least 450 years (& up to 1,000 yes) for a single serve plastic bottle to decompose
2. A million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute – which breaks down to 20,000 plastic bottles a second
3. Less than 6% of bottles are recycled globally
4. Bottled water can cost 10,000 times more than tap water to manufacture
5. Making a plastic bottle uses 2-3 times as much water as fits inside the bottle
6. Research has found that 93 per cent of bottled water brands tested contained some sort of microplastic.