Contemporary marriages are lavish, ending in huge wastage. Wastage in terms of money, materials, and much more. A simple middle-class marriage may cost Rs 20 lacs for the one-day fun. Eco-friendly marriages are a remote reality. In the first instance, wedding cards are mostly plastic with non-biodegradable contents. Some judicious families go for e-cards to reduce expenses. The next biggest waste is food waste. It is an issue of prestige to display a variety of food items, thereby making a wide choice for guests. There is a huge rush in all marriage houses. In the olden days, the organizing families of wedding events stood at the entrance or respectfully received the guests. Today, slowly such traditions are vanishing. People stand in long queues, present the gifts, take photos, then go to dining halls and leave. Lavish lighting, jarring music, and excessive food mark the occasion. There are chat counters, cocktails, beverage counters, and various cuisines to suit everyone’s palate. In many cases, visitors at buffets fill the plates as if they should not miss any item. Half an hour later, one can find half of the foodstuff in the bins. In a country with a population of 1.4 billion, more than a third go without 2 square meals daily. Does it not amount to a sin to waste food?

A week back, I attended a meeting where they arranged a dinner. The organizers called all to join a buffet dinner which offered rice, sambar, one side dish, pickles, and fruit. Ever silver plates were stacked. One has to take a plate, eat, and wash the plate. Unfortunately, most events rely on PET bottles to serve water. In a marriage with a footfall of a thousand, about 5000 PET bottles are used for drinking water. Many have a sip and throw the bottles with more than half of the water in them. Double sin is committed. One is to waste the water and the other is to add non-biodegradable items.  In a mass marriage program, I learned that about 50 thousand PET bottles were used. One bottle cost about 5 rupees at the wholesale rate, it worked out to Rs.2.50 lac approximately. The collective community marriage is being done as a social service to avoid huge expenses. So the idea was good. However, the organizers could consider avoiding plastic and using ever silver plates and tumblers which could be reused. Since they do this annual ritual, they can also plan to acquire plates and tumblers for long-term use. During the lean period, they could rent them out or even do it free of cost with a refundable security deposit. Any new idea is not accepted easily. The environmentally conscious citizens should rise to the occasion. There is no benefit in cursing the changing lifestyle and lamenting over the impossible. Wherever we can do something, we can. About 50 years back, we never had PET bottles, but then also life was going on. We agree that today the scale of measures to take is huge, but eliminating plastic from planet Earth is an immediate task. Time is running out