New Delhi: It is that time of the year, when every nook and corner of the country will be filled with the spirit of the vibrant festival of colors – Holi. But this year, skip the traditional way of celebrating Holi – one with water balloons, pichkaris and toxic colours that end up taking a huge toll on the environment. Instead, celebrate the festivities in an eco-friendly way. Here are some tips on how you can make your Holi celebrations green and make a difference.
1. Make Your Own Eco-friendly Colours And Help Reduce Waste
This Holi, ditch the toxic colours from the market, instead make your own green and safe colours at home
This time don’t buy Holi colours from the market – one they are made using harmful chemicals, secondly, they come wrapped in plastic packaging that ends up going into our overflowing landfills or oceans. The worrisome fact is that plastic is non-biodegradable in nature, as a result, it ends up remaining on the planet for more than 500 years.
What should you do: Instead of opting for the toxic colours from the market, go green and make your own Holi colours using dry flowers or leaves, turmeric, chandan and henna. For making the traditional red colour – get hold of any flower that is in the colour red such as hibiscus flowers. Grind the flowers, and then simply add the powder with some flour. Voila, your traditional red Holi colour is ready.
For Orange or Saffron colour, soak Tesu flowers overnight in water or boil them, once you get the lovely yellow-orange colour, mix it with some flour. For a green colour, mix equal quantities of henna powder and flour, while for Pink or Magenta colour, mix grinded beetroot with flour. Quick tip: To make the colour in bulk, use either wheat or gram flour.
Also Read: Freedom From Pollution: Top 5 Ways How Offices In India Can Reduce Their Carbon Footprint
2. Simply Play Dry Holi With Flowers
Another green way to celebrate Holi is to opt for flowers instead of non-eco-friendly colours
According to a report cited in CSR journal, India wastes as much water as the whole United Kingdom consumes in a year. As per the researchers, India is facing the ‘worst water crisis in history’. So, this Holi be a conscious citizen and help save water wastage. Celebrate the festivities in a green way and opt for dry Holi. If you don’t want to make your own eco-friendly colours, the other option is to play dry Holi by using flower and
flower petals.
3. Follow Zero Waste Rule
Don’t just throw waste into the dustbin mindlessly, for example, if you are playing Holi with flowers, utilise that flower waste for the purpose of composting instead of dumping it into the bin directly
Don’t just mindlessly dump the flower waste into the dustbin, instead opt for composting. Flowers can easily decompose itself into manure and can help improve the texture of your soil. Moreover, by doing this you are actually giving a new life to the flowers.
4. Ditch The Use Of Water Balloons And Pichkaris
Say no to these rubber and plastic balloons
Water balloons are made of rubber and plastic, while Pichkaris are simply made using plastic alone. Our country landfills are already burdened with overflowing garbage, this Holi we can switch to eco-friendly alternatives and ditch these traditional Holi accessories that create unnecessary garbage and waste plenty of water.
5. Decorate Your House With Upcycled Products
Instead of selling off all the newspapers stacked in your house, innovate and recycle these into wall hangings
With every Holi bash comes the responsibility of decorating your house or the area. This time, say goodbye to the traditional party décor which is mostly made using plastics. Instead, go for upcycling –in simple terms, it means a creative way to reduce waste. Going by the definition, the upcycling is basically reusing discarded objects or material to make creative products.
Make colourful wall or garden hangings using newspapers, magazines, old books and cardboard. The first step is to finalise a design you want to go ahead for the wall decorations, paste the design or draw it in the cardboard. Then cut the cardboard in the shape of the selected design followed by cutting a bunch of newspaper together. Roll up the stack of newspapers like a pen and start pasting on the cardboard. After the cardboard is fully covered with waste paper, paint it up. Last and the final step is to hang the DIY décor item together with the piece of thread.
Make use of old CDs and convert them into colourful coasters. Just get a stack of old CDs and paint your way. You can also paste an old piece of cloth over the CDs. And that’s set, the colourful coasters will come handy in your Holi bash.
Also Read: Free India From Trash: 5 Smart Ways To Upcycle Waste Into Things Of Daily
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
