The plastic dilemma

Consider this. As many as 10 to 17 trees are cut down for every ton of paper produced. Paper can be recycled only four times, plastic 20 times. Ecology apart, shopkeepers find it simply unaffordable to dole out a paper bag for a measly purchase.

quot;The Pune Municipal Corporation is awaiting State guidelines to regulate the plastic menace,quot; says A Ravetkar, health officer. An outright ban on polythene bags may prove costly. In India, the per capita consumption of plastic is barely two kilos per year. In European countries, it8217;s a whopping 50 kilos.

The Maharashtra Plastic Manufacturers8217; Association insists there is no cheap and durable alternative to plastic bags. 8220;Some 800-1,000 plastic bags, constituting 1 kg, are available for just Rs 50, whereas 112-113 paper bags of 1 kg, cost Rs 12,8221; says Bansilal Lunkad, president of this association. Also, one ton of paper garbage fetches Rs 500 in the recycling market, while plastic garbage fetches Rs 10,000 per ton.

Though the College of Military Engineering CME has banished plastic bags from its premises, with shopkeepers bound by contract to provide paper bags, price is not a matter of concern, says a CME official and security staff supervising its enforcement, milk bags are an exception. The Environment Department, Mumbai, had issued directions to the MPMA on March 8, to increase the thickness of plastic bags manufactured for handling, storing or carrying food products, to 20 microns, 3 gms and 25 microns for packaging non-food items, instead of the present 5 to 6 microns 1 gm. The reason? Ragpickers would find these heavier bags more profitable, thus aiding garbage clearance. But at three paise per bag, their most enthusiastic efforts will fetch them barely Rs 10-20 at the end of the day.

8220;If these directions are enforced, our expenditure will increase to Rs 600 crore per year, required to import an extra hundred thousand tons of raw material every year,8221; says Amrit Lalwani, an executive committee member of MPMA. 8220;And whatever the consequent price increase, market demand for plastic bags will not fall below 60 per cent of the present demand,8221; he says. Today, the Indian market consumes 72,000 tons of plastic bags every year.

And where will the 2.5 lakh workers and ragpickers in Maharashtra who depend on the ignominous plastic bag for their daily bread, be absorbed? And thousands of crores of bank loans will have to be written off8230;

There8217;s no choice8230;the onus lies on shopkeepers and citizens. Unfortunately, the efforts of the handful of merchants to educate their consumers often fall on deaf ears. 8220;Customers start creating a scene if we refuse to give them a plastic bag for a light purchase,8221; says T Poonawala of Dorabjees8217; whose scheme of distributing fishnet cotton bags from Calcutta to her clients was shelved after customers showed no interest.

8220;Plastic carry bags are a worse menace than AIDS,8221; says Iqbal Dariwala, partner in a departmental store. 8220;Though foreigners refuse our bags and stuff their purchase in their haversacks, barely a fraction of the city8217;s shoppers are so enlightened.8221;

Contrary to popular belief, plastic bags are unfairly blamed for choking drainage lines, for empty plastic bags float on water, it8217;s only when careless people chuck bags stuffed with garbage into gutters, that the problem arises. And animals don8217;t eat empty bags, only those bags full of temptingly rotten kitchen garbage tossed by the wayside.

It8217;s time to stop passing the buck and sit up and do your bit; like the Central Railways, Pune Division, which has plastered the platforms and bogies of the Pune-Mumbai trains with educational posters. But one wonders why the city8217;s WWF has restricted its anti-plastic campaign to this joint venture with the Railways, and not widened its sphere of activity.

While the corporations blame the citizens and citizens blame the corporations, and shopkeepers blame both, here8217;s what you can do, because plastic is not bio-degradable; separate your kitchen garbage into wet and dry refuse, for stained plastic bags can8217;t be re-used. And next time you go shopping, take your own bag! enthusiastic efforts will fetch them barely Rs 10-20 at the end of the day.

8220;If these directions are enforced, our expenditure will increase to Rs 600 crore per year, required to import an extra hundred thousand tons of raw material every year,8221; says Amrit Lalwani, an executive committee member of MPMA. 8220;And whatever the consequent price increase, market demand for plastic bags will not fall below 60 per cent of the present demand,8221; he says. Today, the Indian market consumes 72,000 tons of plastic bags every year.

And where will the 2.5 lakh workers and ragpickers in Maharashtra who depend on the ignominous plastic bag for their daily bread, be absorbed? And thousands of crores of bank loans will have to be written off8230;

8220;Customers start creating a scene if we refuse to give them a plastic bag for a light purchase,8221; says T Poonawala of Dorabjees8217; whose scheme of distributing fishnet cotton bags from Calcutta to her clients was shelved after customers showed no interest.