Author: Avik Chattopadhyay

We had yet another “Earth Day” on April 22 this year. Every year it falls on April 22, so no surprises there. Every year there is a theme. This year the theme is ‘Planet vs Plastics’ with the objective to build awareness and action in reducing plastic production by 60 percent by 2040.

Which is why phasing out of single use plastics by 2030 is one key policy measure proposed under the Earthday.org ‘60×40 framework’. India had gallantly joined in on this wagon a few years back and took to banning plastic straws and shopping bags under a certain micron thickness. There was a lot of fanfare around this in 2022. Now India has decided to take it easy and made it clear we will not be able to meet those targets. Quite obviously, the industry, led by large organisations from all sectors, would have given the Ministry of Environment a hard stare.

This chart from Statista based on OECD projections is telling. Packaging will continue to be the biggest cause of plastic pollution, seeing a 67 percent increase in global plastics use by 2040 and a whopping one billion tonnes of plastics being used by 2052.

While the increased use of plastics in building and construction, transportation and electronics will not be of single-use but for substitution of metals and light-weighting [like in electric vehicles], the increased use in packaging and textiles are criminal.

And this is where the blatant hypocrisy of some of the world’s biggest brands in talking sustainability while continuing to use plastic in their packaging and all communication applications comes out in the open.

Just because our rules on the use of plastic are comparatively lenient compared to developed and more socially conscious economies, many brands otherwise espousing the cause of preserving the earth and following the ESG norms, seem to forget their tall claims of greater purpose and refuse to reduce use of plastic.

All beverage brands offer small servings in plastic bottles. They cannot kid themselves in saying those bottles can be used over and over again. The quality of plastic is such that long-term exposure to the Indian heat anyway is said to make them cancerous.

Almost every consumer personal care product comes in plastic bottles, wrapped in plastic. While the bottles might last longer than the beverage ones, the wrappers are a sheer waste.

All automobiles, at time of sale, have their seats wrapped in metres and metres of plastic. The excuse is that Indians do not wish to get their seats dirty hence keep the plastic covers on for a long time.

Almost all tyres, especially the passenger car ones, come wrapped in plastic, carrying large plastic labels. The excuse given once again is that the consumer wants a clean tyre and the tyre retail environment is typically not very clean.

We boast of being a 700 million smartphone market, now have many plastic sleeves are chucked as soon as we unbox the phone?

Almost every consumer durable comes wrapped in sheaths of plastic, ably supported by generous helpings of thermocol or polystyrene. Very few have a policy of encouraging customers to return the plastic packaging, be it a Mother Dairy milk pouch or a Samsung television ‘protective’ cover.

Fast fashion is another culprit growing like a hydra. An Earth Day report says that people globally buy 60 percent more clothes than 15 years ago but keep them for only half as long as before. More than 85 percent of the disposed garments end up in landfills or incinerators while only 1 percent is recycled. “Thrifting” as a fashion concept applies only to high-end labels and is a fad of the rich.

One can find rampant use of single-use plastic in almost every consumer product sold in this country, where waste management is an almost non-existent concept and almost all the plastic goes into landfills. Delhi has created three artificial hillocks of plastic waste in Bhalswa, Ghazipur and Okhla giving competition to the country’s oldest one in Deonar in Mumbai. The regular fires that erupt in such places put lives of thousands at risk while gradually reducing that of millions through the poisonous smoke.

Adding to products either housed in plastic or wrapped in it, is the irresponsible use of plastic flex films for advertising, signage and branding. Just see the millions of billboards sheathed in flex. Just see all the branding at any conference in flex. Just see almost all the retail signage in flex. Just see every cricket stadium holding IPL matches swathed with millions of metres of flex. This is more than being callous. This is being totally insulting of the need to reduce use of plastic and petrochemical products. No use of cotton, jute or hemp here. On the one hand we preach switching to electric vehicles to save fossil fuel while on the other we are absolutely comfortable with ordering flex banners by the thousands for our company promotion.

Regulations will take time to be in place in our country due to vested interests. We need social activism to call out such hypocrisy. There needs to be an independent rating done of brands across different categories on their use of sustainable packaging and advertising material. Customers need to demand that brand walk the talk on reducing use of plastic as a corporate performance indicator than mere social responsibility lip-service.

If we, as consumers do not act now, we will be damaging the eco-system of our future generations. As individuals we work for or with some brand on another and each of us should bear the responsibility of working towards lesser plastic, whatever be our function. For the brand marketers, it is time to rise above narrow corporate walls and really work for the greater good of community. You can force your operations into becoming more responsible in the way you pack, ship, display and deliver your products.

As Pete Seeger once said, “If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned, or removed from production.”

Avik Chattopadhyay is a Gurugram-based business strategist and commentator. He is currently also working along with XLRI to set up the Indian School for Design of Automobiles. He writes on MxMIndia every other Thursday. His views here are personal.

By the time you read this, the world’s biggest democracy would have played out its biggest festival. The outcome will most likely be in line with the foregone conclusion, with the magnitude of the victory being a subject of primetime debate.

With the internet and social media being our biggest mediums of consumption, the sheer excitement of going to a rally to hear a politician speak is something that most of middle-class India and Gen X have no idea of. Ask us quasi-senior citizens. I vividly remember each of the three times I went to a rally. the first was in Allahabad in 1977 to hear Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna arouse, the second in New Delhi in 1980 to hear Atal Bihari Vajpayee mesmerize and the last in 1990 in Jamshedpur to hear Jyoti Basu enliven.

On the first two occasions, my father had taken me to hear people who were “experts in Hindi oratory”, to improve my own Hindi [something he needed more than I] and experience a level of narrative that does a young nation proud. Mind you, we were just 30 years young in 1977. I do not remember specific words or idioms or phrases either Bahuguna or Vajpayee used but I was sure caught in the electric atmosphere. I remember the huge silent crowd listening to what they had to say and only clap on occasions.

In fact, on the third occasion, I happened to hear Jyoti babu by sheer chance. It was election time and there were rallies everywhere, including one close to where I studied. I asked a local as to whom had he come to listen to. “Bangaal se Jyoti Basu aaya hai. Bahot achcha bolta hai.” [Jyoti Basu from Bengal is here. He speaks very well.] Now, Jyoti babu spoke no Hindi, but the crowd had gathered to hear a leader speak as he spoke “very well”. That possibly is what defined political oratory till recently.

I remember that on all three occasions, they spoke of the future, a better future with them in power, without any unparliamentary mentions of the opposition, forget about being abusive or vitriolic about specific people. Even the thought of target specific segments of society was unthinkable. The only specific mentions were of the poor, the farmers and the industrial workers. The crowds went back with more positive thoughts than depressive ones. They went back with more answers than questions. They understood that the nation’s key enemies happened to be the same as theirs – poverty, misgovernance, unemployment, inflation, lack of health and education facilities. The key divisions in society were between poor and rich, have-nots and haves, jobless and employed, malnourished and healthy, uneducated and empowered.

My history teacher in high school told us that the political campaigns and speeches were an expression of the “state of the nation”. Politicians spoke in a language and tone of voice that the electorate would identify with and further amplify within families and friends. They raised issues and created platforms that resonated with the common man and woman on the street and in the village. The ugly speeches were aberrations. The overall intent was constructive, to create one’s own vote base on positive issues and promises, however unmet for decades. It was all about hope, ensuring that the fundamental ethos of “India” is preserved and promoted.

Marketers could actually take leaves out of the political manifestos and speeches to learn how to craft strategies of market acceptance and leadership by creating the right narrative.

Things changed with Y2K hitting us. The quality of the narrative took a downward direction. Both in content and intent. Years of unmet promises and perpetuation of poverty and deprivation led to the political campaigns and speeches becoming uncouth and ugly by the day, across political parties and ‘isms’.

Initially the decline happened in the lower rungs of the leadership, at the panchayat, state assembly and regional levels. Gradually within a decade it escalated to the national level politicians and the leadership, whether in government or opposition. Decades of a faulty education system and scarcity of employment created a new section of the electorate that was shed of all decency and optimism. This voter base does neither understand not appreciate the nuances in oratory or the veiled sarcasm in pricking the opposition. This voter base is brazen, frustrated, depressed and prone to violence without a care for the outcome. Do not confuse them with the Naxals of the 1960s who were brilliant students from the best colleges of India shedding blood for a cause, however unjustified or utopian. The foundation of education, knowledge, spirit of enquiry and dialectics is totally missing here.

The narrative is now nasty, naked and necrotic.

The way the political leaders, across parties, speak and comment on social media makes one cringe. I just wish some social anthropologist undertakes a detailed study about the state of the nation in the context of the quality of the narratives that are woven and amplified.

The current election possibly creates a benchmark of sorts, in terms of how divisive, derisive and derogatory political speeches and social commentaries can be. One cannot talk of a single political party that has chosen not to fall into this trap and continue to uphold the true spirit of the democratic process. One cannot point out to a single politician who has not used derogatory remarks, abused sections of society, driven fear into communities and indulged more in making the opponent look like scum rather than talking only about one’s own ‘report card’. This is not the traditional battle of the poets where one competed on the quality of composition and repartee, eventually to hug each other whatever be the outcome. This is like the pathetic cock fights with each having deadly blades tied to their feet, out to simply kill each other with the mob enjoying the blood sport.

This year also happens to be the 100^th birth anniversary of Abu Abraham, one of our finest ever political satirists and cartoonists. And the 60^th death anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru. While a certain sane part of India celebrated the former with an exhibition of 300 of his best in Kochi, the larger insane India possibly gave a fitting tribute to the man who had once expected us to rise to life and freedom as the world slept. As a certain Robert Allen Zimmerman sang, “Its not dark yet, but it’s getting there…”