Today being the World Environment day , and it is being said that plastic is one material which has caused maximum damage to the environment. The plastic as such is a wonderful material, as for the same weight to carry, the plastic bag will be much lighter than any other packaging material. In our country use of plastic has increased many fold over the years, but very little attention was given for the environment damage it has been causing over the years . Maharashtra state has banned the use of plastic materials by ordinance on Mar 23, 2018 and 3 months notice was given to industry and users, so effectively from June 23, 2018 the ban will become effective.
Plastic in many variants have been used for house hold items, bottles, glass, jars, storage bins and many more. It has been used in many industrial and commercial products, the most used commercial product is Plastic bag. 90% of advertising hoardings in the country are using PVC flex material, and around 18,000 tons of this material is used every month for commercial and Political banners. Till date no Political party has stopped the use of PVC flex banners. PVC is thermoplastic material that can be melted easily and repeatedly and becomes hard when cooled, therefore PVC along with variants are used for pipes and pipe fittings. PVC is the only material which can be both hard and flexible( PVC Flex). But problem with PVC is that it is non biodegradable, which means once it is not needed or recycled, need to be burnt or thrown for land fills. The burning of the PVC flex releases toxic gases, which are known to be dangerous for human health. Now several states are seeking ban on PVC flex material for advertising. One company has already launched No Flex as sustainable alternative to extremely harmful PVC flex material, it has been said that when burnt PVC flex has carcinogenic properties.
One more product of plastic , which is of major worry is use of PET bottles. Presently they have replaced glass bottles in Soft Drinks, Bottled and mineral Water, Liquors, Oils etc etc. There is a news that Bisleri and Coca Cola have started collecting used & waste PET bottles in Mumbai City region for recycling.
One more sector which is being affected by plastic ban is food industry, as this industry have been using drinking glasses and cups, cutlery, plates, straws, carry away food containers etc etc. This industry is hugely affected and for them finding suitable alternative is becoming difficult. For examples the paper cups have difficulty in holding cold drinks and some times holding hot drinks like tea and coffee also becomes difficult.Some innovative companies have started marketing Stainless Steel reusable straws, some have developed sustainable straw, some have developed strong paper straw. Some have started marketing eatable cutlery. Even the hospitality industry is busy throwing its plastic in garbage. Aluminium bins, cloth bags, glass cutlery are the orders of the day.
Even the tetrapak cartons in which juices, milk and other food drinks are sold. also is not bio degradable, so it will be also health hazard.
The problem is use of plastic is so wide spread that it might become really difficult to do away with it completely in day to day life. Secondly what happens to so many heavy, medium and small scale plastic industries and the people working in them. There is already talk in the media regarding so many people will be rendered job less because of this plastic ban. Has the govt given thought on this issue ? Where all the work force will go after becoming jobless.
The problem with our Politicians and bureaucrat is that they only wake up when there is fire, they never try to analyse before how the fire can take place , and what should be done to safe guard the worst eventuality, in this case Plastic has damaged the environment to such an extent that the drastic measure of stoppage of use of plastic items, is being taken. Now if 2/3 decades back this problem would have been tackled the situation would not have worsen. But our govt in last 2/3 decades instead of curbing the industry, went on giving more permissions for the plastic industries. Along with curtailing plastic usage, if the govt had insisted on recycling the plastic materials, it would have helped the environment in long run. Recently when Versova beach of Mumbai was cleaned, it was found that only PET bottles weighing about thousands of ton were thrown back by the sea on the shore. This was the case on one beach, imagine the sea near coastal cities would be throwing back these PET bottles back on shore. My only contention is when these Water and soft drinks manufacturer switched to PET bottles, why govt did not think about insisting these manufacturer should also invest in recycling plants. These manufacturer silently switched from glass to PET bottles, as they found them lighter in weight as compared to glass bottles. Secondly there was no hassles for bringing the glass bottles back to the factory, as in the case of returnable glass bottles.
Personally I feel it is the PET bottles and very low thickness plastic bags, which have contributed in a big way for this environmental issue.
What you say my friends.
Please post your views/comments /feed backs.
R. N. Mungale.
I feel that instead of banning all plastics it would have served the purpose if only PET bottles & thin plastic bags were banned and the ban is strictly enforced.