A recent and recurring attack on single-use plastic managed to get on to the heads and tongues of millions of Mumbaikars, but the glory remained for a handful of days before the entire severely ill-implemented decree went haywire. Maybe banning plastic is a great idea but its result is not visible to our eyes until and unless the city and the people learn to put the existing trash to a place! A place which is different to a landfill, gutter or anywhere negatively affecting humans or our ecology.

It is a known thumb rule to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic for a healthier tomorrow but what is to be mentioned here is all these three steps are unavoidable. Mumbaikars are doing their fair share in innovating ways in which we can turn such trash into treasure. Though we are far behind our sister cities and its time for us to copy their practices with an honourable credit.

Hyderabad

Out of many innovative ways, Hyderabad is pioneering the race of using plastic tiles to pave the roads. These bricks are made from recycled plastic and it goes beyond saying that they are durable. Apart from these colourful bricks adorning streets of Hyderabad, the city is also reinventing shelter homes with plastic as a construction material.

Goa

The state of Goa, encompassing several mini-cities, is amongst the top tourist attractions in the country. The overly tourist-burdened state gets about 66 metric tonnes of plastic every day and to counter that the state is leading the production of plastic-generated diesel. Bicholim and Sansoddo are two areas where the initial plants can be seen functional through a public-private partnership.

Madurai

A professor from Madurai earned himself a global fame after he discovered ways to utilise plastic-waste instead of burning of banning it. Padma Shri Dr. Rajagopalan Vasudevan paved plastic pathways around the campus of Madurai University and later on took up various other projects in the city and the state of Tamil Nadu. His work and vision were applauded by late Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the former president of India.

Veolia, a Frech environment-conglomerate, estimates the entire worth of the global recycling market to be around $410 billion. Recycling is not just eco-friendly but also the new money, till when India's financial capital will hold itself from it?