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It Starts with You



Ever noticed all the litter on the roads of Kathmandu? Of course you have; what a stupid question to start with! My bad. Let us start over. Ever thought about what you could do regarding the litter on the roads of Kathmandu? The very first instinct would be to recycle or to pick up the rubbish organizing a cleaning campaign or even management of dustbins in the city. However, all that would require you to invest both time and money, and of course a team.  And what is the guarantee that things will go according to plan for a clean Kathmandu? We cannot really tell, can we? But what is the most we could do as an individual? Put your waste in the dustbin. It starts with you.

They say that the Nepalese people have a great endurance power for everything; be it the load shedding period or the dusty Kathmandu roads. I don’t know if this is a good thing or bad. We really always keep blaming the government for absence of proper waste management but is it only the government to be blamed?  Yes, the government needs to emphasize on the matter of recycling and waste management but is it not our responsibility to handle what is in our hands? It starts with you.

Where do you think all that litter or waste came from? It is all man-made. Every day we buy things that are required for our day to day life. And it is our right to do so. We purchased because we need it. But what do we do with the bottle or the packet? We do not see a dustbin on the road or anywhere nearby and we do not think twice before casually tossing it aside on the road. We think: it’s one paper or plastic, how much of a difference will it really make? But you know what:  it does. Post your little toss, another individual will think the same: someone has already thrown here so I am not the only one and the number only grows from there. The result: a mound of filth on the roadside. And then we think: oh the government of Nepal has no proper garbage management. It starts with you.

What can you do then? Get a hold on it. Unless you come near a proper dustbin, keep it your bag or in your pockets. Do not casually throw it on the road.  Throw it in the dustbin when you get home even, but not casually on the road. I have seen many people just casually tossing a chewing gum wrapper or a noodles packet on the road; walking on the streets and even out of a moving vehicle. It brings me shame to say that I have even seen a traffic police doing so. I have seen temples being built on the streets or the corners just so that people would stop throwing garbage there out of sheer respect. Are we really that sensitive? Does it really require a temple to be built on the road to stop us from throwing our rubbish there? We have always been taught in school about the importance of cleanliness in our surroundings. Does that include only our home?

Think about it. Let us not only wait for the government to do their part, but do our part too. Remember: it starts with you.




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