Miguel Braganza
The theme for World Environment Day (WED) 2025, ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’, repeats the message of previous years—2023’s ‘Beating the Plastic Menace and 2024’s ‘Planet versus Plastics’. Giving up something as convenient as plastic is difficult, especially when it’s cheap, widely available, and backed by powerful economic interests. Convenience and technology often become addictions—like mobile phones, tea, tobacco, sugar, alcohol, or even potato chips. India, like much of the world, consumes large amounts of plastic, including single-use carry bags.
The problems are well known, but action is scarce. Over 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year. While individuals are urged to cut down on use, governments rarely push industries to scale back production. And as long as production continues, plastic will end up in the environment—whether sold, used, or discarded. Though addressing the issue at its source is possible, plastic manufacturing brings in taxes and boosts GDP through sales and exports.
A practical way forward is to promote viable alternatives and reduce demand. In a market-driven economy, drying up revenue streams can prompt change. For instance, the shift toward natural and organic farming in Goa and Andhra Pradesh impacted the sale of chemical fertilisers. The ZAC and ZIL units on Sancoale hill, and the once-notorious Santa Monica Plant that produced organophosphorus insecticides for a Swiss company, saw a decline—proof that consumer choices can drive transformation.
Over the past three decades, groups like the Botanical Society of Goa, Festakar Marius Fernandes, cartoonist Alexyz, the Green Heritage Eco Club of SFX High School in Siolim, and artisans like Suryakant Gaonkar and Sabina da Cunha have revived the traditional craft of morllam weaving using coconut fronds.
These eco-friendly braids, once used for hut walls, balconies, and rain shields, now provide a natural alternative to plastic and flex banners. Trainee teachers at the Nirmala Institute of Education learned this craft and showcased their work at the ‘Abolianchem Fest’, supported by the Goa Directorate of Art & Culture and the Ministry of Education. They will now take these skills to the schools they join across Goa, sharing them with students and communities. Those posted in government schools will continue to pass them on as they move between postings. Many GHS and GPS teachers have since gone on to win state and national awards.
Goa’s long-standing eco-friendly customs include eating on banana leaves, using plates made from areca and jackfruit leaves, and wrapping mushrooms in teak or karmal (Dillenia) leaves. Even sonn champac flowers are traditionally wrapped in banana leaves. Countries like Malaysia and Indonesia have seen a resurgence of banana-leaf food packaging, and Goa can easily revive this practice. After all, we lived without plastic until the 1960s—we can certainly do it again.
