Every day I see the people around my locality burning different waste materials like plastic bags, papers, old clothing etc emitted from their household. I have been watching the thick cloud of dark smoke rise into the sky since long time. Obviously I know that burning waste materials like plastic pollutes the air, the ashes left after burning pollutes the land but I feel sorry for myself since I have not been able to convert the knowledge into appropriate action. It is not only me, the victim of this situation but the whole group of youths of my age.

The waste burning is a very common waste management technique applied in most of the pre-urban parts of our country. In these parts, the people seem to find this method simple, easy and less time consuming. The waste, when it is burnt, seems to be managed for a while but their adverse environmental and health impact in the long term turns out to be very terrible for the human beings and the whole environment. So, in the present context it is seen that the youths of sub-urban areas like Thankot need to take some concrete steps to resolve this issue.

Recently, Kathmandu was listed as world’s most polluted city by the pollution index produced by Numbeo.com in 2016 A.D. Here, the open air burning of waste materials like plastic also has contributed a lot in the pollution of our environment. These materials, after burnt, cause severe air pollution, land pollution and sometimes unintentional fire too.

The smoke released after burning wastes contains various vulnerable gases in it like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, etc. These gases for short term cause respiratory problems, eye irritation and destroy the visibility of the surrounding whereas they cause the terrible situation of global warming, ecosystem imbalance etc as the long term impact.

Most of the people around our community are seen burning the waste materials in their field. Although the people think that it will make their soil fertile with the ashes but the consequence becomes just reverse. The burning not only decomposes the essential compounds in the soil but also it kills the animals like earthworms and other useful bacteria there. It ultimately degrades the soil’s fertility. Likewise, the ashes left after burning also are non-biodegradable in nature. Thus, the burning of plastics causes land pollution as well.

In our country, the weather becomes windy around the months of Falgun, Chaitra and Baisakh. On these months, if waste is burnt in open areas, then it is likely to cause violent destruction of lives, property and resources as a result of uncontrolled fire.

On the other hand, waste burning causes several health hazards within us. The inhalation of poisonous gases produced after waste burning has victimized lots of people from our community with the life threatening diseases. Asthma and cancer are the major instances of these diseases. These effects are not seen instantly but as the people grow older then a huge sum of money should be invested for their medical treatment.

A problem needs some causes in order to persist for longer duration. Yes, there is a problem of waste burning in our community and there are lots of causes for it to exist there. Initially, the people in the community seem to be unaware about the deadly short and long term impacts of waste burning. Similarly, the knowledge about proper waste management techniques also lacks among the residents. Some people, although they know the impacts don’t tend to bring change in the locality, so they go through the same traditional practice. Besides these, the root cause of this problem is, we are unable to find a sustainable solution to replace the present situation of waste burning. The concerned governmental bodies are also failing to establish abundant recycling centers around the community. Amidst everything, the problem is also there with the educational institutions around our locality. It seems like the local schools are failing to provide the adequate level of practical knowledge on waste management to their students.

Youths hold the reins of the society. They direct the society into a desired way. Certainly, burning of waste has become a terrible of out locality. So this matter should be controlled with the direct initiation of youths. The local youth clubs can play a leading role to aware the public and discourage the waste burning by innovating several strategies for waste management.

Initially, awareness in public plays a vital role in reducing the problem. On this regard, the youths should be able to convey the message of harmful impacts of waste burning to the residents of locality in order to reduce the problem. Likewise, we also need to conduct several awareness activities in the local schools and in the community by using media. In the same way, the youths should pressurize the concerned governmental authorities to help in reducing the act of waste burning.

Schools are the best platforms to aware the community. Each child in a school represents a separate household. The youth club can conduct different counseling programs, awareness creating dramas and several other programs like essay competition, poetry competition etc in local schools.

Along with that, we can paste the posters depicting the harmful effects of waste burning, around the public places. Similarly, we can conduct the youth rally program on some special days like June 5. It can also help reducing the problem.

The media has influenced everybody’s life in present generation. So, we can use media to help the people recognize the bad impacts of waste burning. The aware youths can even publish their articles in newspapers and magazines. Along with that, we can spread various messages through social networks like facebook, twitter etc so as to increase the consciousness among the people.

The waste burning activity is increasing these days because people lack the knowledge on proper waste management techniques. So, we should suggest them appropriate ideas to decompose the organic wastes and ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ the inorganic wastes.
The organic wastes produced from our kitchen pollute the environment if they are burnt. This wastage could be converted into nice manure. Hereby, the youths can suggest different methods of making compost fertilizer such as piling method, under-ground burying method and barrel method to the local residents. This will help convert phohor to mohor.

Nowadays, most of the people are seen coming with polythene bags when they go shopping in groceries or dairies. Similarly, they are very attached with junk and ready made foods. These minor causes are increasing the solid wastes at our homes. Now, the youth can aware public to use fabric/jute bags while going to grocery, to use their own vessel or pot while purchasing milk and they can aware people to give emphasis on home made food instead of junks. This may help to reduce solid wastes, which are non-biodegradable at our homes.

It is said that waste is not a waste until it is wasted. So, we need to teach people different waste reusing techniques. The plastic bottles and wrappers are the major non-biodegradable wastes produced in our household. These items can be used to make pretty decorative items like baskets, piggy banks etc. We can even use the plastic bottles to fetch water and grow seasonal flowers in them. These common reusing techniques also can be taught in the community.

The materials which cannot be reused should be sent for recycling. We can accumulate the waste papers, glass, and plastic products and sell it to the ‘Kawaadi’ factory. This in one hand provides us money and in other hand prevents the wastes from being burnt. This information should be given to local residents by youths.

But the problem is that the concerned governmental institutions are failing to give sufficient priority to the issue of waste management. So, the youths should pressurize these institutions to establish recycling centers around the community.

Finally, as the issue of waste burning is getting terrible day by day. It seems very vital for us to take some solid steps towards its mitigation. The change begins from within and we can certainly do it if our commitment and determination stands tall. We, the youths, should be conscious in order to preserve this beautiful earth for our descendants. Thus, we need to get united to aware the people and co-operate with the concerned governmental institutions, NGOs and INGOs for resolving this issue once and forever.

Luitel is a ninth grader in Bright Horizon Children’s Home School. This is the winning essay of the School Level Environment Essay Contest 2016 organized by Clean up Nepal and UNESCO Kathmandu office.