Should We File an MTR Along with Our ITR?

Dear Friends,

How many pairs of shoes/chappals, including both used and unused, are you holding right now? When I asked this question, I immediately checked myself. Two pairs of shoes and one pair of chappals! The additional pair of shoes is kept as a backup. Perhaps after one or two years, I’ll discard it without using it much as it naturally wears out.

According to Statista, approximately 23 billion pairs of shoes are produced worldwide each year. An estimated 22 billion pairs end up in landfills. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Americans throw away at least 300 million pairs of shoes each year. These shoes end up in landfills, where they can take 30 to 40 years to decompose.

Similarly, globally, approximately 23 billion toothbrushes are discarded every year. If we prepare a list, it continues like this—diapers, toys, baby care products, crayons, sketch pens, craft materials, fast-fashion clothing, school bags, disposable razors, smartphones, cosmetics, artificial jewellery—and the list goes on.

Approximately 60–70% of the human body mass is water, composed of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. By mass, the main elements are oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, which together make up roughly 96% of the body. The rest are minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, and potassium, which also come from soil and food chains.

The idea that the human body originates from the environment and returns to it is broadly correct, both scientifically and in traditional philosophies such as the Pancha Mahabhuta concept. When a person dies, the body’s elements gradually break down and re-enter soil, water, and air, effectively closing a natural material cycle. In a nutshell, the body is a temporary organization of earth, water, air, and other elements that, after death, remix with the environment—completing a continuous natural cycle rather than a one-time event.

Having said this, when the human body is designed this way, and all life on the planet completes the cycle—including the items they use—why are the items used by human beings not completing the cycle?

The simple rule applies: during our lifetime, the items we use should be recycled, upcycled, or repurposed. If this equation is solved, the world’s sustainability and circular economy issues will also be resolved. Every year, we file an ITR for income tax. The time has arrived to file an MTR—Materials Responsibility Report. ITR for money, MTR for matter. Every individual mobile-linked purchased item should be automatically reported in the MTR!!

We file ITR for what we earn; MTR for what we return. What came from Earth must not end in a dump.

Can MTR solve recycling and sustainability issues as a matter of self-declaration (inspiration) and tax (motivation)?

Ravi Saripalle