What You Can Do to Make Startup Festival Litter-Free

Trash on the ground when it should be in the dustbin a few feet away. Discarded plastic cups in the seating area. Spilt food on benches or chairs standing out as eye-sores in an otherwise perfectly charming milieu. These are common scenes you'll see in Bangalore's parks, on roads and even in the hallways of public buildings. Addressing the big issue of public littering is an important eco-goal for our beautiful garden city. It calls for debate, discussion, solutions and action. Until then, you can do your bit towards making Startup Festival as litter-free as possible.

#1 Do you really need plastic bottles and bags?

Single use plastic-bags and bottles carried and used outdoors inevitably make their way into the surroundings. It is not unusual to see plastic bags flying in the air, sitting on small garbage mounds on street corners and even being ripped apart or investigated by stray dogs! And while waste segregation measures were recently enforced by the BBMP (Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike), Bangaloreans are yet to follow this in toto.

We cannot allow inorganic plastic waste to accumulate - the best way to ensure this is to stop buying plastic in favor of more environment-friendly utility items. How about a cotton or jute bag? Or a steel flask or reusable thermos? Much better than carrying plastic bottled water. If you do carry bottled water to the festival, take the empty bottle home at the end of the day and segregate it with your other inorganic waste, as you hopefully do everyday.

#2 Cigarette butts do not belong on the ground

If you feel like having a smoke, do it in a provate area and throw the butt in a designated place. Smoldering cigarettes in overflowing garbage cans can cause a fire. Also, chemicals can leach out of them, polluting the air and even killing small animals.

#3 Think of other areas where you can avoid harming the environment

This doesn't exactly qualify as a litter-free solution but falls under the wider umbrella of environment-friendliness. See if you can cycle to Startup Festival (healthy and eco-responsible) or carpool with friends/colleagues who are planning to attend the festival.

Remember to have fun and make the most of everything Startup Festival has to offer!

(Blog managed by Godot Media)