Every year, about 1.15 and 2.41 million tonnes of plastic waste enters the ocean from rivers and  Asian rivers are responsible for 86% of the total global input. All these rivers have a few key things in common: all of them run through areas where a lot of people live — hundreds of millions of people in some cases.

Haridwar, a holy city on the upper Ganga, generates close to 11 tonnes of plastic waste as untreated waste and litter on a regular day and may generate more than twice as much during festivals with much of this plastic waste being directly dumped at the Ganges ghats or illegally dumped at vacant sites.

Agra, an important tourist destination, has roughly more than ten tonnes of plastic litter per day leaking into land and riverine ecosystems. Most of the contribution of plastic littering comes from mismanagement of waste from slums, secondary storage, uncollected waste, and dumping sites of Agra city. (Source UNEP)

Uncertain about how to escape the burgeoning amount of plastic consumed in our day-to-day lives? Here is an AR filter to help you with choosing the alternatives which are #BetterThanPlastic. The filter lets you know the plastic products that you use unconsciously which harm the environment and alternative eco-friendly solutions like using steel utensils instead of plastic. The filter is designed under United Nations Environment Programme’s #PlasticSeBehtar campaign.

The #PlasticSeBehtar or #BetterThanPlastic campaign focuses on motivating the people to choose eco-friendly alternatives of plastic in their day-to-day activities. It aims to create awareness towards the environment degradation caused by the plastic and spreading the word for the need for action against it.

What makes #PlasticSeBehtar #BetterThanPlastic is different in that it focuses on the positive aspect of action. Optimism.

The AR filter was designed to

• Guide you to catch and choose the right alternatives that help us make sustainable choices that are #BetterThanPlastic. 
• A user can try and capture as many alternatives to plastic by moving a set of ‘hands’ on the screen. 
• The movement of the ‘hands’ are tracked to the movement of the user’s face. Simply put, the user moves their head side to side avoiding any plastic items while carefully trying to catch the alternatives. 
• The user is rewarded for every positive choice they make and penalised for every negative one. 
• At the end of the game, the filter draws up your score to tally how well the user fared in the war against plastic.

Try out the filter yourself to gauge how well can you choose #PlasticSeBehtar  https://www.instagram.com/ar/299828688780605/?ch=ZTIwOGU5MGRhYzUwYjMwZDU5ZjJhMzAyNmNmZjUzMDQ%3D

It starts as a game, but hopefully is replicated in real life. Ready to choose #BetterThanPlastic? Try out the filter, record a video of your top scores, share it with us only on LetMeBreathe.in and get a chance to be featured.