Plastic ban: Govt may bar poly-bag production

The Himachal Pradesh government has banned the production,storage,use,sale and distribution of plastic bags made from non-biodegradable materials. Environment officials said though the Cabinet had rejected a similar proposal last year,all their recommendations have now been factored into the fresh Cabinet note.

The Delhi government banned the use of plastic bags in Delhi in January 2009,and the rules provided for punishing defaulters through a fine or jail term,or both. Authorities have since then raided shopping outlets and malls and prosecuted shopkeepers providing plastic bags,with some being fined up to Rs 1 lakh.

But in a city of at least 1.6 crore people,most of whom are used to the idea of getting plastic bags for every shopped item,enforcing the ban from the user’s end proved difficult,a senior environment official said.

“The only way out is to make plastic bags inaccessible,and that’s best done by banning its production. So far,we have banned manufacturing only in select areas,” the official said.

Environment officials said the steps taken to provide cheap alternatives to plastic bags through talks with manufacturers have failed,and only a ban on production can make dealers look for other ways. “In the Cabinet note,we have elaborated on how all efforts made to discourage use of plastic bags have been insufficient for enforcing the ban,” the official said.

The law that banned plastic bags delegated prosecution powers to sub-divisional magistrates,civic bodies and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee,among others.

The government spent money on awareness campaigns. It later altered rules to allow flexibility in prosecution by effecting on-the-spot fines. “We even tried offering sops to those who supplied eco-friendly carry bags made of bio-degradable material but to no avail,” an environment official said.