Page 9 - Plastics News June 2018

FROM THE EDITOR'S PEN

Despite Plastic Ban Monsoon Woes Continue

The Pre Monsoon showers earlier in the month were decent relief for everyone except the
BMC and the reason; city chokes up once again. Hardly some hours of rain brought the city
to a halt with a pool of water everywhere. The BMC tactfully blamed the MMRDA for the
trouble. This verifies the fact that BMC do not complete their job and is always ready with
some excuse. Earlier it was plastics, this year it is MMRDA!! Why can’t we have an effective
waste management in place?

Time and again we have said lets have effective waste management in place and everything
would be sorted for Plastic waste constitutes less than 3 percent to the total waste and does
not deserved to be banned. It has become more of Political and perhaps at times fashionable
to talk against Plastics for small gains. But most of them do not realize the practical utility
value of plastics equally to both- the poor and needy and the modern day citizen. Let’s be
honest our modern-day life is all made of plastics for the matter of convenience.

Plastics (Packaging) helps reducing food waste and equally supports the poor from the rain, be
it barsaati or the tarpaulin Sheets that are laid on the hutments / slum during the monsoon. Mr. Rajiv B.Tolat
With the ban in place and no other alternate available how does the poor one protect oneself?
How do the office-goers in city like Mumbai order their lunch parcel from the restaurant /
food court? Is he / she expected to carry cutlery, plate and glass as well?

Not only that, the confusion over the food packaging / plastics bags still persists as the
Government officials themselves have no clarity on the subject matter but would readily
fine Rs 5000 to anyone found using plastic bags since June 23, 2018.

This is ridiculous and seems that the decision makers are amateur; perhaps they are working
on remote control. One might argue that Plastics are banned across the globe but then it is
done systematically and they are focusing on Single use and not a blanket ban like ours. We
are adding to confusions.

Using Glass would mean wasting more water on washing glass for reuse and using paper
would mean cutting more trees. Moreover both Glass and Paper adds to carbon footprint
whereas Plastics don’t.

It would be advisable that the government apply some machinery to come out with some
logical solution that would not only build upon the business but also streamline the system for
bans do not work, on the contrary it adds to corruption and harassment. Are we ready for it?
Rajiv B.Tolat
Hon. Editor
publication@aipma.net

9 June 2018 Plastics News