Environmentalists on Thursday expressed dismay over minister of state for environment and forestss comment that a ban on plastic bags was a bad idea. Bharati Chaturvedi, director of NGO Chintan, said the Centre should in fact be disincentivising plastics and giving fiscal incentives to alternatives. Plastic bags were banned not because the municipality was unable to do its work but because it was a petroleum product. How can plastic be seen out of context Society has come to a consensus that plastic bags have to be phased out to reduce our carbon footprints. The government cant ignore that, she said. Even if one were to go by Rameshs claim that the inability of the civic bodies to handle waste in cities led to such a ban, it is important to note that even if the waste was collected, the country has no mechanism to deal with it. Dikshit accepted that two incineration plants the government was trying to set up had not materialised. Incineration is a highly expensive process. European cities have spent millions of Euros on their plants to ensure emission control. We in India do not have such resources, said Agarwal. Vinod Jain, on whose PIL plastic bags were banned in the city, pointed out that various government agencies had failed completely in monitoring the recycling and manufacturing units, and in the citys context, banning was the only foolproof solution. The plastic industry has failed to take any responsibility for dealing with plastic waste though the court gave it as much as four years. Agreed that plastic on its own might not be hazardous, but what does the minister intend doing with all the waste, he asked.
In Delhi, the implementation of the plastic ban had not been very successful though some indivuduals and market associations have taken the initiative to switch over to alternatives. Thanks to the ban, several small scale units manufacturing cloth and jute bags have also sprung up. Recently, the government announced that it had finally formulated the process under which defaulters will be penalised for using plastic bags in prohibited areas.
neha.lalchandani@timesgroup .com
POINT Counterpoint
Union minister JAIRAM RAMESH says: Switching over to paper bags would lead to cutting down of trees
But...
Recycled paper, being promoted by the Delhi govt, does not entail cutting down of trees. Most low-end paper bag production use old newspapers
Ministerspeak: Plastic is chemically inert and not per-se hazardous to health or environment
But...
PVC in plastic is definitely a cause of concern. India does not have any mechanism for handling the waste in which case plastic can clog drains, water bodies and leach into soil at landfill sites
Ministerspeak: Plastic has been banned only in India and Bangladesh
But...
The list of countries that took action against plastic is long
Bangladesh
| Total ban in 2002
Zanzibar
| Complete ban in 2006
Ireland
| Levying heavy fine since 2006
San Francisco
| Became first US state to ban bags from large stores in 2007
China
| Banned free plastic bags in 2008. Production, sale and use of ultra thin bags are prohibited
Switzerland
| One needs to pay for plastic bags
PLASTIC FACTS
500 billion-1 trillion plastic bags used worldwide each year Use started in department stores in late 1970s They were introduced in supermarket chains in the early 1980s First plastic bags for food appeared in the US in 1957 North America and western Europe account for nearly 80% of world's plastic usage A quarter of plastic bags used in wealthy nations are produced in Asia
RECYCLING OF WASTE PLASTIC
No of people associated directly in Delhi | 2 lakh Places where recyling is taking place | Mongolpuri, Seelampur, Narela, Bawana, Mundka
RECYCLING BAGS
1
Plastic waste and scraps collected by ragpickers taken to the scrap markets
2
Scrap sorted out and sold to pellet (danna) manufacturers
3
Waste shredded, washed, treated and melted into pellets
4
Pellets sold to manufacturers who process it into polythene bags
BAN THE BAG
We want to encourage Delhiites to get rid of plastic bags completely. In place of plastics, we are actively encouraging jute and recycled paper
Sheila Dikshit CHIEF MINISTER, DELHI
It makes sense to ban plastic bags if there are alternatives available. And in this case, alternatives are present. This will reduce the load of non-biodegradable waste at the landfills
Kushal Yadav CO-ORDINATOR , TOXINS CAMPAIGN, CSE
Failure to manage waste is not entirely the municipality's fault. The Centre
also needs to take an initiative to formulate a plastic waste management policy
Ravi Agarwal DIRECTOR, TOXICSLINK
There is societal consensus on the fact that use of plastic has to be brought
down. The ban was not about plastic as much as about not using a petroleum product
Bharati Chaturvedi DIRECTOR, CHINTAN
The country has no mechanism to handle plastic waste at present.
Will the minister give a personal undertaking for plastic waste management if he doesn't want a ban on it
Vinod Jain DIRECTOR, TAPAS
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