Saturday, October 06, 2018

CPR


No, I am not referring to the Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation procedure in this post, as I am not a qualified doctor :-) I am talking about a new acronym which I coined up - 'Corporate Product Responsibility'. Yes, this post is about the environment again - same old blah, blah, blah..!!! Yes, I hope you agree we human beings are the most brilliant species on Earth. But we are brilliant in being the most selfish species on earth and we are worse than any virus because we think only about our own well being and not the planet Earth's even for a split second!

So, this is a different concept; which I guess no corporate would agree with. Most businesses believe in giving back to the society by way of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). But CPR is about the business taking ownership of the product created by it from the beginning of the lifecycle of the product to its end. This concept tells us that as human being for a change, let us think about the environment first and see how businesses can use some of their profits in giving back (or not giving back!) to the environment.

But in our struggle against environmental pollution, natural catastrophes, I think it is about time, corporates keep the big picture in mind and take responsibility of not only 'producing' the products but also 'recycling', 'reusing', and 'reducing' the waste that is generated after the products have been used and disposed. This will ensure that they become more aware and more responsible of all the raw materials, chemicals, etc which goes into their product while they produce it. They should have a complete blue print of how they source each and every piece, to how it is converted, to how it is returned back without leaving any negative footprint on the environment.

In many developed countries, they do have facilities to collect old and used electronic items separately, hazardous waste separately and so on. But still our landfills are piling up day by day with trillions of tonnes of waste which is polluting our air, water and soil. All this is coming back to bite us in the form of poison laden meat and veggies. The other easier option would be for all the people in the world to become 'vegan' and eat only 'organic' but that would be asking for too much at the moment. So for the time being, in our race against the clock with pollution, the governments of all countries should make it mandatory for every company, to take responsibility for the disposal of the products produced by them. They should be able to collect back whatever product they have produced and ensure that each and every part of the product is either recycled, reused or disposed away safely - but ensure that it is not ending up in a landfill!

Not only this, it should be made compulsory for every householder to take personal responsibility for all the waste generated from their household. They should not just bag the garbage in different colored 'plastic' bags and think that's the end of their responsibility. If it is biodegradable waste then they have to ensure that they are using it in some for - either converting it to natural fertilizer or using it as biogas. Also, there should be some form of check on the amount of resources which is spent by the average householder. There should be no form of wastage in spending of resources.

It is high time that companies look beyond their profit margins and take up this CPR course, as we desperately need to save our ailing Mother Earth - NOW!