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Ploggers of the world...unite!
Kotishka
Veteran
Would the Buddha go on a plogs round?
Rising early, they would prepare their robes and bowls and, after their morning meditation, walk and mindfully attend their reality, collecting any garbage.
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Comments
With all packaging being naturally biodegradable in the Buddha's time, before plastic, what would they be picking up?
They used to make their robes from abandoned garments of the dead so that was the only plogging that I've heard of.
I've been toying with the idea that companies should be responsible for the packaging waste they produce. I don't know how that would work in practice. It would be impossible to require them to gather back all of the waste. So, would one possible solution be for them to have to pay a fee based on the packaging they are using? This would a) motivate them to use less harmful packaging and less packaging and b) make products with more harmful packaging and more packaging more expensive so consumers would buy less of them. I don't know, just noodling.
That is a really good point. I once asked Ajahn Punnadhammo about any references related to ecology and taking care of nature in the suttas. He said there are no real references to any of that because of what you said: the amount of trash was very limited and biodegradable mostly. Though there are some references in the vinaya to the respect of nature as in monks not being allowed to kill or remove plants. I will check that out...
I still imagine, me, peasant Kotishka, going for his morning jolk and seeing a huge turd in front of his mud hut and saying to himself angrily: "God damn Ramesh let his dogs poo in front of my house again! ... And also smashed his ceramic beer mug against the wall!"
Which reminds me....Many moons ago whilst travelling overland from Oz to Europe, I was travelling through India, mostly by train...
I would buy tea and snacks from a chaiwala (tea seller) when the train pulled into a station. The tea was poured into a small clay cup and after finishing the tea, you would just throw the clay cup out the train window when the train left the station...
The chaiwalas would retrieve the broken clay cups and make more cups with them...
This was a common practice on train journeys...everybody did this...
Plus in some small villages I travelled through, the places when I ate would serve the food on a large leaf and you would use your hand to eat from the leaf....
No mess no fuss and biodegradable...
In economics this is known as a negative externality. Basically its when a company or individual can gain the profits of its work, product, etc. while putting some of its costs onto others. Its a major point of failure in a market system that relies on price mechanisms.
In a way a scene like the above with the monks moving along a tidy tarmac path with a well-kept lawn strewn with rubbish bags is a failure to educate and make proper use of composting. The contents of those garbage bags might well be compostable or biodegradable, but because it’s in bags it gets untidily deposited all over the place. If the villagers knew to do their own composting and biodegrading in a few garbage heaps maybe they would be better off?
Education and example are the key foundational stones. They lead to awareness. Sometimes, you simply know, awareness is not as obscured. But a little help is always appreciated
Like for example....having a bin 2 metres away but instead preferring to throw it off the bridge. As a society, simply looking at the perpetrator and saying "why did you do that?" without going into insults or anger. I also know I'm not the garbage justiciar, perhaps just your local garbologist.
Over the years I've lost count of the amount of rubbish I've picked up from the beach when out walking or on my morning jolk...
At times I see others also picking up rubbish, but for the most part, many beach walkers (locals and visitors) are so engrossed in conversation (either with another person or lost in thought) that they walk right passed the rubbish...
No doubt there are some who think along the lines of, "Well it's not my rubbish, why should I pick it up.... let someone else pick it up" ....
I guess when it comes to keeping the beach/environment clean, it's a case of lead by example....
I am not sure if it's from other ploggers or from a groundswell of folks becoming more mindful about their own littering but I have found a steady decline of garbage left to pick up around my neighborhood over the last couple of years. I also found that hardly a day went by during plogging that strangers didn't approach me to express thanks or want to talk about what or why I was doing it. I guess that's what a grass roots movement is.
I've even stopped going out with plogging equipment now because where I used to come home because my ploggers garbage bag was full, now I'd be lucky to fill 1/2 a bread bag with debris after an hour's wanderings.
This could change at any time and I keep an eye on it, but for now its kind of a good news story.
Some years ago I was working at a large pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in the Midwest, and the amount of packaging material that came through our Receiving dock was unbelievable. Over about a year we worked with our suppliers to require that they accept return of all this material with the next delivery. Not all were willing, not all were capable, but by being persistent/intense/borderline insane, we reduced our monthly MSW (municipal solid waste — “trash”) by about 2/3.
That's amazing @Steve_B, good for you! What would you say was the main motivator for your company to make this move? Do you have any idea what the suppliers then did with this packaging? Since they had to take it back, did you notice that they made moves towards less packaging?
I just found this piece of news, which is basically what I've been thinking about:
https://www.sustainableplastics.com/news/germany-moves-towards-new-plastics-tax
Note that the fees/tax will be used by municipalities to dispose of the waste in an ecological manner, not as income for the general state budget.