Plastic Ban

Effective 18th March 2018, Maharashtra govt has banned the use of plastic bags and bottles of any form. Only temporary exemption given is for  Plastic pouches for Milk and PET bottles for water. The main reason given is the plastic waste is spoiling the environment and most of the plastic produced and then used is thrown as scrap , which does not reach for recycling. OK govt has banned, but what are the alternative option available, let us say for plastic bags for carrying things, obviously one would tend to say instead of plastic bags, use paper or cloth bags. Have someone in govt has given proper & serious thought about the alternatives for the plastic bags or just because paper and cloth bags can be used, so govt says ban the plastic. For liquids instead of plastic/PET bottles use glass bottles. In practical terms it is not as simple as it appears to be, to use paper& cloth bags and glass bottles.

According to many reports published by respectable technical institutions, the manufacture of paper bags consumes 4 times more water and generates 3 times more green house gases than manufacture of plastic bags. You will wondering on this fact, but the truth is one tree can make max 8000 sheets of papers. From this 8000 sheets, the number of paper bags which can be manufactured, will be consumed in one hour time  in any mid size town, forget about big city or metro city. One tree takes about 2 years to grow to give this yield of 8000 sheets. Imagine how many trees will be needing to feed paper bag industry. Secondly paper bags need about 2-5 months for decomposing, depending on the type of paper, it is very false notion people carry that paper decomposes early, the fact is paper disintegrates faster, which is not same as decomposition. Now if we you cloth bags, you will need water to wash the bags, and use of cloth also has environmental effect. Though both plastic and paper bags are recyclable, but plastic bags are more reusable than paper bags.

Further news is also there about banning plastic cutlery. No one tells what is the alternative for cutlery ? Wood? How many trees will be cut for that and how the wood cutlery will be recycle?

Regarding Milk Pouches and PET Water bottles, the govt says that the manufacturers can charge Rs 0.50 per pouch and Rs 1.0 per bottle extra, which will be refundable by the dealer/vendor when consumer returns the empty pouch or bottle. This is the most ridiculous idea I have ever come across, have some one in the committee who have drafted this law given a thought on the logistics of this scheme.  Let us talk of milk pouches- suppose a house hold buys 1 litre of milk everyday(ie 2# 500 ml pouches or Rs 1.0 in refund). Now tell me which house hold will preserve these pouches to get a refund of say Rs 30 in a month, what they will think price of milk is increased by Rs 1 per litre. In the case of water in PET bottles, most of the purchase is outside the house, which person will want to bring the bottle back home, and then which vendor will redeem the return, because vendor near house will say you have not purchased from me, why I should redeem.

Govt is also saying that they will ban the PET water bottles in 6 months, then use of glass bottles will not be a solution, because they will more heavier and logistic for returning the same will be also very cumbersome. The fact is – why plastic/PET bottles gained foothold in the beverage/water industry, because they are very light weight as compared to glass bottles and secondly returning the same bottle to the manufacturer was not there, as is the case of glass bottles. And most important glass bottles are prone to break and hence not safe for mass distribution.

Considering all the above factors, the banning of plastic bottle/bags/pouches is not the solution for saving the environment. Managing the plastic waste in efficient manner and educating the public is  the real solution. The options available are far worse in the longer run than the plastic waste if managed in efficient manner.There should be better and efficient mechanism for waste disposal than the present dumping grounds. In future govt should also think of giving incentives to  Industries which are meant for Plastic re cycling, deriving fuel from waste, producing energy from waste etc. These types of projects not only will help in reducing the plastic waste but also help in other economic areas like creation of more jobs. The aim should be to promote any Industry which uses this type of waste as basic raw material. Our country is full of people who will come out with brilliant ideas about how to convert waste into useful resource and revenue.

in the end ,what you say my friends.

Waiting for your views/comments, feed backs.