India streets littered – Plastic wastes suffocate cities

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Narendra Modi

SRINAGAR, India, Feb 26, (RTRS): Half of India’s states and union territories have introduced a blanket ban on plastic bags, and yet many shoppers remain wedded to the flimsy carrier bags while plastic waste still litters the streets of the South Asian nation.

In mid-January, Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir became the latest state to prohibit all polythene bags, in accordance with a ruling by its High Court. It joins 17 other states and territories governed by New Delhi that have imposed a complete ban on the sale and use of plastic bags, including Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.

Five other states — Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Odisha and West Bengal — have partial bans on the use of plastic bags around sites of religious, historical or natural importance, or during the pilgrimage season, according to data provided to the Thomson Reuters Foundation by India’s Central Pollution Control Board. Despite this, change is barely visible on the ground.

Example
In mountainous Jammu and Kashmir, for example, shopkeepers and vegetable sellers still pack goods in plastic carrier bags before handing them over to customers. “We have been hearing this for a long time — I don’t think (the ban) is going to work,” said Mohammad Yasin, who sells vegetables in Srinagar city’s Zainakote area.

The government of Jammu and Kashmir had already banned bags made of polythene — a common form of plastic — with a thickness of less than 50 microns a year ago, but to little effect. “It is not only up to us — the customers share major responsibility. They should carry their own reusable bags. If they do so, the ban will work,” Yasin said. More importantly, the country needs to stop making polythene, he added.

Several other shopkeepers the Thomson Reuters Foundation spoke to agreed. “If the government is serious about stopping the use of polythene, it should ban its manufacturing. That will force people to carry their own bags,” said Abdul Rashid, a shopkeeper in Srinagar’s commercial hub, Lal Chowk (Red Square). India’s plastics industry employs about 4 million people, and has more than 30,000 processing units, according to the India Brand Equity Foundation, set up by the government to promote “Made in India” products internationally.

Domestic consumption of plastic is expected to reach 20 million metric tonnes per year by 2020, while exports of plastic products were worth $7.64 billion in 2015-16. Srinagar Deputy Commissioner Syed Abid said the Jammu and Kashmir government was committed to stamping out plastic bags. “We have constituted special squads for enforcing the ban, and we are also seizing polythene wherever we find it in use,” he said in an interview. Some environmental experts say carrying plastic bags should be punishable by law.

Traders
“As of now, only the traders or shopkeepers are penalised — which doesn’t affect people who compel the shopkeepers to provide them with plastic bags,” said Samiullah Bhat, assistant professor in the environmental science department at the University of Kashmir. Riyaz Ahmad Wani, the commissioner of Srinagar Municipal Corporation, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation the authority may consider imposing fines on those who carry polythene bags under a new policy for solid waste management now being drafted.

In March 2016, the Karnataka state government issued a circular stipulating that no one should use plastic products, including bags, banners, bunting, flags, plates, cups, spoons, cling film and table cloths. It also said those items should not be manufactured, supplied, stored, transported, sold or distributed.

In 2016, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted that cows — a sacred animal for many Indians — were dying after consuming plastic, and urged those concerned about their welfare to stop it happening. According to a June 2017 study published in the journal Nature Communications, 20 rivers — mostly in Asia — carry into the sea about two-thirds of the plastic in the world’s oceans, with the River Ganges crossing India and Bangladesh responsible for the second-highest amount among them.

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