This post is created by The Better India and sponsored by Wingify Earth.

The last straw

An 18-year-old from Gurugram has all but one mission: to reduce single-use plastic in the national capital. 

A high school student, Aditya Mukarji, has been going door-to-door to campaign against the “single most dangerous invention by man” for the last four years. In this period, his campaign has stopped using over 26 million single-use plastic items in restaurants and hotels, including straws, cutlery, and stirrers made of plastic. 

While he began his mission with the hospitality industry, he has also reduced single-use plastic items in corporate firms and cinema halls. Mukarji provides paper, bamboo, and metal straws to customers who insist on plastic straws. 

He is one of the 17 young Indians chosen by the United Nations for its ‘We The Change’ campaign in the run-up to the COP26, and is dedicated to fighting ‘plastic pollution.’

 

According to the World Air Quality Report 2020, 1.5 percent of India’s population in Delhi accounted for 6.6 percent of total plastic waste generation in 2019-20. Before the Delhi government banned single-use plastic in July, Delhi generated more than 690 tonnes of plastic waste everyday and has often topped the charts for the same. 

At such a time, endeavours by young climate activists such as Mukarji are providing residents with healthy alternatives and encouraging citizen participation in improving the quality of life in the city.

#WingifyEarth encourages such proactive initiatives.

#WingifyEarth in partnership with 'The Better India'