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Will banning bags in Maharashtra solve our plastic waste problem?

Plastic is one of the best alternate materials and is widely used in our day-to-day modern life and
there is no alternate matertial.

aharashtra has announced that it will ban plastic bags
Mby Gudi Padwa, the state’s New Year.The proposal
was made after the realisation that the bags, discarded
recklessly by citizens, are clogging storm water drains, and
are one of the reasons for the severe flooding in August.

Will banning plastic bags stop Mumbai’s drains from getting
choked? Experts are sceptical. Almitra Patel, member,
Supreme Court Committee for Solid Waste Management,
said that a ban on plastic bags may reduce the problem
but the effort involved in enforcing the ban will not be
worth it. “I do not want to say whether banning plastic
bags is a good or a bad thing. It is a partial solution to
the problem.”
Plastic sleeves are used to cover almost everything, from
wedding cards to books. Plastic carry bags can be recycled,
though the effort in enforcing buybacks from customers The fibres come not just from the plastic waste that
could be challenging. is breaking down in the water bodies but also released
in the effluents from washing machines used to wash
Plastic may be convenient and one of the greatest
clothes woven from artificial yarn. The impact of these
discoveries of the twentieth century, but it is claimed
contaminants on health is not known.
to be devastating natural environments. One study by
US academicians says that we have produced more than “It is not just bags, now even fruits and vegetables and
eight billion tonnes of plastic in the last seven decades vegetables come wrapped in plastic. Can this material
and most of that have ended up in landfills or in the be switched with something that is bio-degradable?”
seas. The discarded plastic will take thousands of years asked Avick Sil from the Environment Policy Research
to disintegrate and the study said that the plastic waste Institute. “What about the packets used to sell gutkha?
in our water bodies and soil are a “near permanent People are throwing them everywhere – what happens
contamination of the natural environment”. to them? What is the strategy to get them back?”
The plastic does not remain there. As it breaks up, it Current Scenario
creates microplastics – pieces that are smaller than five
World over large stores and malls have stopped giving
mm in size. It is killing marine life and choking land
away free plastic carry bags but this has not stopped
animals, but the microplastic is also getting into our
people from using them. “People are ready to pay for
drinking water.
the bags. This is because the bags are convenient. I am
A study by Orb Media, a non-profit and the University of an environmentalist but there are times when I have
Minnesota School of Public Health, says that microscopic bought a plastic bag because I forgot to carry one from
plastic fibres are found in taps, from United States to home. If the government wants to ban plastic bags it
India. More than 80 percent of the tap water samples the needs to look at alternatives,” said Sil. “Bio-degradable
researchers collected from five continents had plastic. alternatives to plastics are a good idea but packaging

Plastics News | Octob er 2017 30