India is Trash!

The title seems clickbait. It is to some extent, but it’s also 100% true. Anywhere you go in India, you will see scenes like the following.

The only way to avoid these is to stay confined to 5-star hotels. But you walk 100 meters outside a 5-star hotel and you will find scenes like this. 

The situation has worsened a lot in the last decade due to 2 reasons - population has increased and gotten richer. When people get richer, they use more plastic. More boxes, more packaged food, more stuff for their houses. Average consumption of Indians has increased exponentially in the last decade, a lot resulting in trash/landfill.

What makes me sad is that I see almost no path to a solution. Government is spending billions revamping the roads, train stations and airports. But there is no attention to waste management, no talks about it. India can’t be a developed country with its trash. 

And, it smells bad :(. A lot of the food items are thrown in public places (due to lack of waste management), so it smells like rotten food in many public places.

Solving waste management will do wonders for the country -

1. It will reverse brain drain. As mentioned in the blog https://www.25yearsinusa.com/post/myths-about-why-people-move-to-usa-and-don-t-return, the #1 reason why people move to the USA is lifestyle, not money.

2. It will increase tourism by 10x. India has amazing places to visit. Due to the diverse culture and food, traveling to India is like traveling to a continent. The #1 issue that’s a deterrence to tourism is the cleanliness in India. You will see and hear about it from bloggers and vloggers everywhere. Tourism alone can have a significant contribution to the overall GDP.

3. Indian movie industry will shoot more within India rather than going abroad, therefore contributing to country's GDP and increasing tourism. Aamir Khan once said in an interview "We fly to shoot abroad mostly because it's clean everywhere on the streets. You can angle the camera to anywhere and it will look clean. Same is not true within India. We have to find the right angle to avoid the rubbish on the road."

4. Improve AQI (air quality). The main reason for poor AQI is not stubble burning, but trash burning. You will find scenes like the following in every nook and corner of the country. There is no way to dispose of trash, so people burn.

   Having a solution to waste management can make a difference of 30-40 points in the AQI. 

   

5. Improving health. Many diseases are caused by waste and pollution. A clean India will be a healthy India.