Dr. Sanjay Joshi

Plastic pollution has two faces: careless human behaviour and the stubborn chemistry of the material itself. As I mentioned in my last article, while speaking at the  ‘Beat the Plastic Pollution’  seminar, one participant asked how discarded plastic actually pollutes the environment. The answer, I explained, lies on two levels. The first is simple and immediate: our everyday habits of careless disposal—throwing plastic on streets, into drains, water bodies, or open land. This behaviour...

Convenient as they are, one-time plastic shopping bags eventually land in garbage dumps and become pollution. Welcome to 2026, dear reader! Before I continue, let me briefly recall where the seminar discussion had paused. I had shared a simple incident from a vegetable market to explain that plastic by itself does not create pollution. It was at this point that one of the attendees remarked how most of us reuse plastic carry bags to collect household garbage, only to discard them later in...

Are you guilty of taking plastic bags for your regular grocery shopping, or do you do the right thing and carry your own? Recently, I was addressing a group of young people at a seminar. Most of them were students. The topic of the session was  “Beat the Plastic Pollution”.  I began my speech with a deliberately provocative statement. “Plastic does not create any pollution,” I said. Then I paused and asked, “Do you all agree?” The room instantly filled with confusion. The audience looked at...