World Earth Day: The Things We Use, The Things We Leave Behind
40% of the world’s plastic waste comes from packaging.The problem is, it usually shows up at the end of things.
After the food is eaten. After I open the package. After something small and useful has already served its purpose. What remains is light, crinkled, and suddenly unnecessary.
This past Sunday, I unwrapped a pretty typical parcel from an online shopping website. Nothing out of the ordinary. I took it out. When I was done, there were three layers of plastic on my table. None of them felt too big while opening. All of them did once they were empty.
For a moment I just looked at it, then like always, I went out and grabbed it and threw it away.
There is an efficiency to that. It clears space quickly, and it ends the interaction just as quickly. What happens after is less visible. Which is probably why it is easier not to think about it too much.
A plastic bag seems to disappear into the mundane. It arrives with things. It leaves with the trash. In between, it does what it is meant to do. It feels too ordinary to question.
It is only when you begin to notice it, that it starts to feel… frequent.
But all of that never stands out on its own. It adds up slowly. The extra bag at the store. The tiny sachets that came with orders. Plastic packaging waste in the e-commerce sector alone is expected to reach 3.12 million tonnes by 2027.The fact that even simple things rarely arrive without some form of wrapping. None of it stands out.
There is an increasing desire to replace plastic with something more natural and green. Cloth bags are back in fashion, as are metal bottles and glass, while some cafes are beginning to use paper or reusable compostable cups. The new materials seem even more promising, with plant-based plastics, seaweed packaging and products designed to decompose faster.
It is hard not to feel a bit hopeful around these. Nevertheless, the more you hear about them, the less clear they sound. Some of these alternatives work only under certain conditions. Some are better in one way, but not another.
You see it in small ways. A takeaway container labelled “compostable,” for instance. It sounds like the right choice. But it usually ends up in the same dustbin as everything else, with no clear sense of what happens after.
Even brands seem to be trying. “At McDonald’s India – North and East, sustainability is embedded in how we source, serve, and operate every day. For over 25 years, we have built responsible practices across agriculture, energy, packaging, and supply chains, ensuring accountability to both the planet and our customers. Our restaurants are plastic-free, with FSC-certified paper-based packaging, wooden cutlery, and paper straws.” said Rajeev Ranjan, Managing Director, McDonald’s India – North and East.
There are announcements, small shifts, experiments. But the scale of plastic use in our lives isn’t changing as fast as we talk about it. Part of the difficulty also lies in what happens after disposal. Globally, only about 9% of all plastic waste is actually recycled, with much of the rest ending up in landfills or the environment. What we throw away does not always find its way back into use.
It is the habits of the day that generally do not change.It is not always out of disregard. Often it’s out of convenience. Or habit. Or because we know that one small step will not really change anything.
I still forget to bring a reusable bag more often than I think I will. I still accept packaging I probably could not refuse. It doesn’t feel like I made a decision. It just happened.
Perhaps that is why plastic is so hard to confront. It is not dramatic, it does not command attention, and it fits too easily into our daily routines.
Which also makes it harder to walk away from.
There’s been lots of conversation around replacing plastic. New materials, better systems, smarter design. All of that matters. But it feels like only part of the picture.
Because the habitual use of plastic is not just about the material. It is also about how it helps support a way of life: fast, disposable, and seldom asked questions.
Taking note of it may not make any difference instantly, but it does make it harder to ignore.
And perhaps, for now, here it all begins.
Earth Day occurs once a year, and with it the usual reminders. Posts, campaigns, small shifts in attention. For a while, it feels like everyone is thinking about the same thing.
And then, things get back to normal. The habits, the packaging, the everyday moments.
But the reality they point to exists long before and long after the day itself. The question is not what happens on that one day. It is what carries forward from it, if anything does.
