A techie-turned-environmentalist

After knowing that waste goes to landfills a 26-year-old techie was collecting empty milk packets to dispose them. Soon after knowing that even milk packets are part of the wastage that goes into the landfills, he turned an environmentalist and started making use of empty milk packets to grow saplings in them and collected over 1000 empty milk packets. Along with Madhulika Choudhary, who heads the NGO Dhruvansh, he is aiming to reuse all packets by converting them as seed bags.

A native of Jodhpur who had been living in Hyderabad since 2016, Ram Arora decided to become an eco-bloggers and practitioner of minimalist and adopted an eco-friendly and sustainable lifestyle.

Ram is an engineer who had completed his M Tech in microelectronics, when asked about how he chose to be an environmentalist, he said, "I decided to ei follow the simple principle of '7 R's Rethink your choices, Refuse single-use, Reduce consumption, Reuse Everything, Refurbish old stuff, Repair before you replace, Repurpose be creative and reinvent, Recycle last option". That's when his journey of an eco-friendly and sustainable lifestyle started.

During the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, he used to get most of the items in single-use bags for safety reasons he had collected all, washed and dried them, and decided to reuse them for growing saplings.

Ram happened to see a video in which a tortoise was bleeding because a plastic straw got stuck in its nose and the vet was trying to remove it. Ram felt that so much pain is being caused to other living beings of this earth just because we (human beings) use plastic a lot. Then, he started finding an alternative to the plastic straw and bought a metal stainless straw that lasts for generations, and slowly he started finding an alternative to each single-use plastic item.

With this Ram taken up an initiative and became an activist fighting for the environment. He said, "I have been actively volunteering at Neknampur Lake from last year and saw everyone contributing to the environment in some or another way. So, I came with the idea to reuse milk packets for growing saplings. Madhulika Ji, an environmental activist inspired me to grow medicinal ones making it a perfect idea to present on this Independence Day."

Ram is also focusing on spreading and creating ideas to live eco-friendly and sustainable lifestyles even if people are working in the middle of the concrete jungle through social media. "I aim to promote home composting, all-purpose cleaner Bio Enzyme, BYO (bring your own) cutlery like a spoon, plate, fork, steel straw to avoid single-use plastic, eco-tourism, and zero waste out of your house concept. My target is to create a place which is self-sufficient in all needs (food, daily essentials, energy, water) and does not generate any waste out in the environment," says Ram.

He is also running a campaign over social media to live a simple, minimalist, and eco-friendly lifestyle, "There is no looking back now," Ram says proudly.

When asked about the process of reusing the empty packets, Ram explains, "Once we empty any packet of the item, it is human tendency to treat it as waste and throw it away but if we see there is more to that empty packet, a lot of energy is utilised to produce it so to understand the judicious use of empty packets we are reusing and repurposing them to grow medicinal plant saplings in them. This way we are reducing consumption of new plastic bags reducing the burden on manufacturing new plastic and reusing empty packets which may end up in a landfill."

"We distributed a sapling to all the people who visited Neknampur Lake on August 15 and participate in activities like growing saplings, reciting freedom fighter stories, sharing their eco-friendly lifestyle experiences, using the public toilet instead of open defecation. The idea is to involve people to sustain the environment rather than destroying it for our personal need and greed," said Ram.

Ram has a message: "The lifestyle which we are living right now is based totally on society needs, convenience, and economical perspective and if you add environment health in this it becomes sustainable. It starts with removing this use and throw culture which we have developed from the past few years. Before purchasing anything just think about its content, packaging, and environmental impact. Buy and support local."