See the product and not the packaging

     

The above pictures are to show that without any attractive packaging and the company's name and website addresses products can be sold and bought. They are jaggery prepared from the palm juice in South India for centuries. Everyday tons of these sweet sugar are sold without any marketing. But will our sellers who count the eyeballs that watch their products for a few micro seconds switch over to traditional methods. They leave not a single millimeter space and paint and print their brand and company.

When people repeatedly talk  about  an issue and the issue is not a serious to one individual from his personal angle, the issue becomes a redundant one. People will respond only when their livelihood or rights are touched.  The French Revolution was the result of a decadent aristocracy coupled with an economic crisis.

Today when we say 'avoid plastics' and 'shun politics' people do hear and agree to the proposal.But when they enter a market and return 10 -50 grams of plastic/polythene fill  their bags. A cursory glance of any of the urban or rural garbage simply reveals they are non-biodegradable materials. In this current crisis the marketing companies too join the lazy consumers by introducing heavy and attractive packaging.  Thus the product is not an issue. The outer cover.

Still in many parts of the world people do carry containers to procure liquid items like oil and milk. But most of us get packaged milk  and oil at our doorsteps. Unfortunately to our horror even engine oils are packed in 100 ml pouches.

Instead of persuading people to avoid these polythene packs with little success, the regulatory authorities can come out with policies that ban the production and usage. How long the persuasion and appeals?

Why polythene has become unavoidable?

* It is one of the cheapest material available for packing things
* People think it is not fit to their status, if they carry a cloth bag
* Easy going lifestyle- give everything simple
* No time to eat the fruit -give it as juice. Pack them in tetra packs. It is difficult to raise my chin and drink. Give me a straw. It should be more comfortable. Bend the straw straight to my lips and so on...
*Kill the locally available food and go for mass production, sale and distribution.
* Glut of money. Simple food with rice/wheat is liked by none. Go for varieties of food.
* Eat more and with more varieties. Advertisements proclaim before hotels... Indian, Chinese,Western and continental food'
*To fill a small stomach  and satiate hunger we scrounge continents!  All these to satisfy the tongue and derive emotional pleasure.
* As the modern devil 'urbanization' has devoured  the human civilization, where we live in cities with 1000 square kilo meter size and when each complex  becomes a big town people were left with no choice. They can not run to the neighborhood shop from their 50th  storey nest whenever they need an item.

* As we are not in a position to stop these migration and urbanization we have to come out with suitable alternatives that would take care of this earth and our hearth.
* It is possible.