Landfills are representative of our misplaced development priorities.
Photographer: Jonathan Torgovnik/AJWS | Organisation: SWaCH Pune Seva Sahakari Sanstha.

“Plastic Free July is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution”. The movement was started in 2011 by “Rebecca Prince-Ruiz (the founder of the Plastic Free Foundation) and a small team in local government in Western Australia, and is now one of the most influential environmental campaigns in the world.” This excerpt from the Plastic Free July website shows that globally, people acknowledge the plastic crisis as well as want to be part of the solution. And why not, as the age we live in is being called the plasticene¹ and plastic pollution has become all pervasive. Plastic is found on top of the highest mountains², deepest of trenches in the ocean³, while plastic (microplastic and nano plastic) has been found even inside human placenta⁴, blood⁵, lungs⁶ and testicles⁷. Scientists have discovered that micro- and nanoplastics exist in every environmental compartment — from freshwater to soil and air — and in thousands of species, including humans⁸. A 2019 WWF report suggests that we consume an average of 5g or a debit card size of plastic a week. Toxics Link in 2024, found microplastic in all 10 samples of salt and 5 samples of sugar they studied in the Indian market. Similar studies in the past have shown tap water, bottled water and other food and beverages to contain microplastic. Microplastic has become part of our daily food and drinks.

When we think of pollution, the usual culprits come to mind: air, land, sound, and water pollution, as well as the sight of streets littered with waste. Solutions often seem straightforward—keeping our streets clean and using waste bins to manage waste. However, is this enough to address the multifaceted issue of pollution? Even if we keep our streets clean and use waste bins diligently, what happens next? My understanding of pollution was limited until I attended a transformative training workshop at the Sambhaavnaa Institute in Palampur (Himachal Pradesh), co-organised by the Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA) in May 2024.

We are in a strange world where the word sustainable mobility has assumed a multitude of interpretations. Mobility is stuck so much to a passenger car that as common citizens, we have stopped thinking any differently.  

Let us try and examine some realities... 

Even in large cities, more than half the trips happen on foot, bicycles and public transport. Most of the road, probably more than 80% is occupied by private cars, accounting for just one passenger per car. The investment in good roads, and flyovers etc., specifically in cities, is the largest chunk of development budgets.

If we need sustainable mobility, we need to look at several parameters for more comprehensive understanding of the problem:

0. First think of whether you need to move at all

The Global Status of Road Safety report (GSRRS, 2023) by the World Health Organisation has reported a reduction in road traffic deaths globally. There were an estimated 1.19 million road traffic deaths in 2021 – a 5% drop when compared to the 1.25 million deaths in 2010.  However, RTIs have continued to increase in India, with 1,68,491 deaths reported in 2022, an increase of 9% from 2021 (MoRTH, 2023). Thirty six percent of these fatalities were reported on National Highways (NH), 24% on State Highways (SH) and 39% on other roads. The proportion of RTC on NH, SH and other roads have remained unchanged since the road network in India was 63.32 lakh km in March 2019.