Hello all the environment lovers! How have you been? Its long since I have written an article in Tunza as I have been away in an assignment. However, I am happy to see much more passion in the web.

I here want to share a very deadly habit of people in rural areas of Nepal. Obviously, plastics have created big environmental issues all around the globe due to its environmental unfriendly properties. However, in some rural areas of Nepal like Khokana, people have intensified the negativities. People here preserve plastic bags and use them to start a fire. As plastic has property of melting while burning, it serves as easy, costless and less tiring means of fuel. ?I never let plastic bags to go to waste. We even gather the oil packets and food wrappers for burning them as fuel?, says Mrs. Menuka Kandel , a local resident of Khokana village. Before, people used kerosene on firewood to lit fire but now people find lighting plastics to kindle fire easier and cheaper.

The effect of this malpractice is not only in the environment but also in the health of the people. The harmful gases like CO, Carbondioxide, dioxins ultimately mix in the air causing tremendous destruction to the natural atmosphere. And on the other hand, people inhaling such gases will pose high risk of respiratory and nervous diseases along with eyes and reproductive disorders.

In rural Nepal, firewood is still the only option for cooking. I have tried and mentored people into avoid using plastics to start burning firewood. But in the long run, alternative options to this environmental mayhem like solar energy and proper environmental education seem right and most needed.