Three mascots for Plastic Free July in Chennai

As single-use plastics abound despite laws to check their manufacture, sale and use, one need not look far for an excuse to persist with them. Look sideways at the next shop or the next door, and there it is, the excuse plonked in a hideous plastic cover. A flower seller from Adambakkam, Jagadeesh; a caterer from Velachery, Sasikala; and a resident of Chromepet Radhika Premkumar avoided taking that convenient sideward glance. They instead looked straight at what ought to be done In a world where every personal plan and public policy clicked neatly into its intended place, Plastic Free July would be a superfluity. But with laws to eliminate single-use plastics having the biting force of the Etruscan pygmy shrew with its almost-invisible teeth, this awareness month is a necessity in our world. It challenges people to avoid banned plastics and minimise the use of legal and unavoidable plastics, to start with, for a month. These three individuals did not need the prodding of a Plastic Free July to free themselves from the entanglements of single-use plastics. They simply emerged as tiny pockets of resistance in a vast landscape of capitulation.