Is a quiet, unobtrusive presence enough?
Hello! Here I am again with yet another one of my heartfelt musings (surprised to have you here after my first round of innoxious exhortation). This too is a result of my unremitting rumination on the happenings around the world. I resolved it was only logical to go ahead and write something that prompts us all to do something, whatever we can afford to, and eventually drive a change from the same. So in this article, I hope to come up with the smallest changes I can expect from people around me that can protract the ill-fate that awaits an inestimable number of animals in this world.
Without further ado then! Let’s get on. Here is a derisory list of things that anyone can perpetrate (harmlessly, of course!).
1. Mayonnaise and other condiments
This is a fairly popular condiment rarely unheard of. Mayonnaise is a creamy, slightly off-white coloured consumable emulsion that is of the essence in most snack food items that we all relish. Even salads are dressed with various flavours of this wonder ingredient in most kitchens.
Dishes like burgers, sandwiches, salads, savoury crêpes and even the dips that accompany most crackers and nachos and Doritos use this. The original recipe calls for three major ingredients: egg yolk, oil and vinegar, but off late eggless mayonnaise has found its place in all major supermarkets in the world, and the texture, taste and price range have all been mimicked to sublimity. For most people, both versions do not have any differences at all.
That is all great, Illisha. But why are you telling me about Mayonnaise?
Good question. Well the only reason why I am preaching on about mayonnaise is so that YOU choose to go for the eggless variant, whenever and where ever possible. Most general restaurants use mayonnaise and are unaware if they use the vegetarian or the non-vegetarian deviants. Just politely asking them if the mayonnaise they are using in the preparation dish that you excitedly ordered is eggless or not engenders them to consider the fact that the eggless version is a safer play since they may have customers who are vegetarian or vegan, and abhor egg consumption too.
Irrespective of your dairy and poultry preferences, opting for eggless dressings and condiments can go a long way for the poor hens who are injected to produce more eggs to meet the insurmountable demands. In fact, this could hold for all baked goods as well! If the retailer does not discriminate between the prices of eggless and egg versions of the same product, it would be fantastic if you could opt for the former version =).
2. Plastic snips
Ever noticed the number of consumables that come in a plastic packet? All the snacking goods, for example. The plastic that is most often used in this packaging is called oriented polypropylene. It is a prominent material used for packaging and presentation and a very prevalent single-use plastic found all over the world. Polypropylene is also among the least recycled plastic so abundantly used.
Recall the number of times you have cut open a milk packet (Well, in India, packeted milk is colossally perpetual), a packet of chips or a coffee sachet and thrown off the tiny triangular snip inadvertently. This piece of advice is to desist you from doing so the next time around!
So the quandary revolves around what really happens with that tiny piece of plastic after it is discarded. The plastic used in milk packets is low-density polyethylene. Quoting Kripa Ramachandran, an independent researcher on municipal solid waste and waste workers, here “To be recycled, this type of plastic has to be compressed at a high temperature and in certain shape; else, they add no value. If such pieces do not reach the recycling units, it disintegrates into microplastics, that is, less than five millimetres in length, like the size of microbeads used in gels and toothpaste. Rain and wind carry these smaller fragments into drainage systems, which could lead to clogging. These can even enter water bodies, and as a result, marine organisms may mistakenly consume them.”
Extemporaneous consumption of small pieces of plastic by animals is fiercely ubiquitous. Instead of snipping the plastic off, just pulling it open would make a mountaneous impact (pun intended)!
3. Chewing gum
Wikipedia defines chewing gum as a soft, cohesive substance designed to be chewed without being swallowed. For us when we were kids, it was just a confectionary item, but the market exists for even the adults who wish to combat bad mouth breath and people trying to quit smoking.
Stupefying as it may seem, By 2025, global market revenues for chewing gum are expected to reach 48.68 billion U.S. dollars.
When it comes to disposal, contrary to its size, this pygmy piece of confectionary is a gremlin. Gums can be found stuck on walls, pavements, dustbins, etc and are a terrible bother to cleaners. Used chewing gums not only freight bacteria and germs and put the garbage separators’ health in jeopardy, but they also pose a hazard to birds and animals. Gum is the second most common form of litter in the world, behind only cigarette butts. And, only around 10% to 20% of all chewing gum is disposed of properly.
Animals very often ingurgitate edibles in a trash can, and gum along with it that smirches their digestive system and is a cause for tribulation. For birds it is even worse. Even as they are smart enough to not consume gum as their food, pecking on a discarded piece of gum leads to it getting stuck on their beaks, chafing and irritating them. Additionally, involuntary manducation can choke them. It does not take too much to ditch a gum. All it takes is a piece of scrap paper to wrap it in and toss it off in the nearest trash can!
I’ll rest my case here! I believe all that written above is exorbitant for you to celebrate upon. Thank you for apportioning your time on this article and I hope it was emblematic. Now remarking on the question that heads this article, YES. A quiet, unobtrusive presence is most certainly enough as long as one can silently offer their assistance in the tiniest ways possible :D.
