I watched my home country (India) abandon natural materials for plastic and now companies sell the solution back to us at a huge premium
Hey everyone,
Recently found this sub and have absolutely been loving reading through the posts and comments. I have been slowly moving towards plastic free living since a few years.
I wanted to share a trend I’ve noticed growing up in India and comparing it to what I see now living in the US. It is absolutely wild to see how companies actively market plastic and manipulate us into buying them.
Growing up, I swear most of our stuff was as natural as it gets. Bless the non-globalization policies from the government back then. We relied heavily on sustainable, local materials.
A few examples:
- Leaf Plates: Forget paper plates. For marriage events, parties or functions, we used plates made entirely out of sal leaves. They were 100% naturally biodegradable and still dirt cheap. It blows my mind seeing $24 for a 20 pack on Amazon. Even now, in India you get them for maybe 10 cents per plate. Now everyone uses some sort of plastic plate, with an additional thin cling film like plastic on top. Because it looks “expensive”.
- Utensils: All the glasses and plates in our houses were stainless steel. If we go back even further, they were made of Peetal (brass) and copper. It’s not that glass/ceramic is bad, but stainless steel utensils were literally passed down through generations. Now, it’s all plastic cups. Even roadside tea stalls used to serve tea in earthen clay cups and now it’s all plastic cups. (Hot tea in a plastic cup lol)
Traditional cookware used to be made of clay - you’d cook in them and then destroy them (the Puri temple actually still uses them to cook and serve food). Almost everybody used cast iron pans. Now, everyone has “upgraded” to non-stick teflon pans. Most people making the switch don’t even know what forever plastics are.
- Soda bottles: All sodas came in glass bottles. You’d drink your soda at the store, hand the bottle back, it would be sent to the factory to be washed and reused.
- Shopping bags: My dad used to go every morning to buy vegetables with a Jute bag. Probably used it for years. Now Jute bags are seen as “poor man’s bag”.
- Brooms: Our brooms were completely natural. I even learnt how to make them in our village using dried coconut leafs. There were no nylon brushes back then. Even for dishwashing we just used dried coconut shells. Thankfully, a lot of people still use these traditional brooms today.
US definitely feels much more wasteful on a macro level, but the sheer volume of plastic usage infiltrating India is insane. I get it, though. Some of things have improved with plastic. A lot of rural places in India still use these traditional items, which is fantastic. But under the guise of “modernization” cheap plastic has made its way into absolutely everything.
I saw this change slowly but surely. And I’m not even that old, just 32. So this was all throughout late 90s and early 2010s.
Now, living in the US, I see so many stores taking advantage of people trying to be plastic-free. If you notice, many cotton products (clothes, bedding etc), wooden items and metal utensils say “Made in India”. They sell these natural, traditional items to us at a massive premium. Meanwhile, everyday Indians don’t even have easy access to those same “Made in India” sustainable items anymore. Instead, the local market is flooded with “high-quality” plastic. There are literally shops named “Plastic shop” who only sell 100% plastic lol. Example image: https://imgur.com/a/0iWssnj
I don’t know what the official term for it is, but it’s a pattern/cycle I’m noticing. Companies created this massive plastic problem and are now selling us the “solution” for a huge markup.
Slight rant:
It infuriates me seeing things like $3 pillows at Walmart that are just 100% polyester. People buy a new one every six months because it’s so fucking cheap. Even my friends who are fully aware of my plastic aversion would rather spend $5 ten times than spend $50 once on something more durable.
Anyway, the point is: lot of countries still have these local industries that will get destroyed and then companies will sell you “eco-friendly” solutions. Nothing more than a marketing term. But that’s story for another day.