Rustle was born in a factory. The factory made
plastic bags. With him were born many of his brothers and sisters. All of them
were plastic bags. After they were born, they were piled together in one corner
of the factory. Rustle liked his name because when the breeze came in through
the factory doors, he rustled merrily in the corner.
He was a simple plastic bag. But what
Rustle wanted most in his life was to be useful.
Soon a truck took him, along with many of
his brothers, sisters and cousins to a big supermarket. They were piled inside
a box. Rustle waited to see what he would be used for.
A family came to the supermarket. The
family bought a lot of vegetables and fruits. Rustle wondered whether he or his
brother would be picked up to keep the family’s things. He was excited when the
girl at the cash counter picked him up. She opened his mouth and gave him to
the father. Rustle was singing softly as the father of the family filled him
with vegetables and fruits. The family walked out of the supermarket, the
father swinging Rustle in his hand.
When the family reached home, they emptied
everything from Rustle, folded him carefully and put him in a drawer. They
reused him many times until he became old.
There was a hole in his bottom, too.
‘Oh, this is a useless plastic bag, now,’
said the mother. She had cut some spinach and potatoes for dinner. She filled Rustle
with vegetable peels and cut-off spinach stalks and threw him out into the bin.
The bin smelled terrible and Rustle landed
on some rotten vegetables. A dirty baby’s plastic nappy fell on top of him.
Rustle could hardly breathe.
He was glad when the bin was tipped into a
truck carrying waste. But there was more rubbish in the truck. It rumbled up
the road. Then it dropped all the waste along with Rustle into a big, open
rubbish dump.
Gauri the cow was walking on the road. She
loved rubbish dumps. She was always hungry for the farmer gave her very little
hay. Gauri came looking for food at the open dump. She saw the vegetable peels
and green spinach stalks peeping out of Rustle’s open mouth. She began to munch
at them. She closed her eyes chewing and enjoying the taste. She did not see
Rustle and swallowed him up along with the food.
That night Gauri’s tummy began to hurt.
She lay down inside her shed and cried, ‘Moo! Moo! Moo! Help me, please.’
The farmer came into the shed, but he
could not help her. The farmer called the animal doctor. The doctor put Gauri
to sleep and cut open her tummy. He found Rustle. ‘It is a plastic bag,’ said
the doctor and threw him out. Then he put Gauri’s tummy together with a thread
and needle.
Next morning when Gauri woke, the pain was
gone. Rustle was lying beside her. He was very sad because he had hurt Gauri.
He told Gauri the cow, ‘I am so sorry that I made your tummy hurt. I wish I was
never made.’
Gauri said, ‘That is right. Plastic bags
must never be made or used. They can kill animals when they eat these bags from
the rubbish dumps. Plastic bags get under the soil and do not let roots of
trees go deep down to look for water. Plastic bags spoil the rivers. Nobody can
drink water from rivers with plastic bags. Fish eat them up and are killed.’
‘I did not know plastic bags were so bad
for everyone. How can I be useful, then?’ asked Rustle.
‘It is better that you go back to a
factory where they take plastic bags to make useful things. Plastic can make
buckets or boxes but not bags,’ said Gauri. ‘Afterwards, buckets, boxes and
other plastic things can be recycled to make more useful things.’
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