Plastic Ban
Dear friends,
I am initiating a debate here. Inviting your active cooperation by giving inputs and opinions.
The waste management is the major problem facing by the urban local bodies throughout our country. Tons of domestic and industrial wastes are dumping to the roadside piles which, in most case takes to the dumping yard under the municipal cooperation. In many of the cities, we are lacking a facility to treat them, and existing facilities are often non function. As a result of this, many cities are coming up with an idea of complete ban of plastic (bag, sheet, glass, plate) in their territory. So the questions before us are:
1. Is the ban of the plastic is the right solution?
2. The issue of mountains of wastes and the environmental and health hazards is because of the plastic (plastic only!) or because we don't care for segregation at source?
3. Is the ban is a 'stop -gap- arrangement' to escape from the public protest and media reports, but without any pre-planning or scientific study?
4. Do we have enough alternative arrangements (say paper/cloth bags, glass...etc)?
5. What is the impact of increase demand for paper and cloth products on our environment, water resource and economy?
6. Since there are technologies available for recycling of plastic (40 micron), the actual reason for the crisis is lack of management not lack of technology. So, is ban is the ideal solution?
7. Do we have plan/technology to handle the increased paper/cloth wastes?
8. Why we not speaking of / insisting of segreation at source, which is much simpler way and practical solution?
Civil Engineer for Environmental Services, Team Leader, and Program Manager
8 年Hi Rakesh! Great questions, and I hope we as environmental professionals can speak the truth about these kinds of changes, which I believe are done without evaluating the overall environmental impacts. In Bangalore we have a complete ban, which mostly results in increased costs to the customer when visiting vendors who comply with the law, or indifference where the law is ignored. In Hawaii, a similar ban is in effect, which means stores provide costly sturdy paper bags instead. Perhaps if the usage of recycled papers or recycled cloth is spurred by the ban, we can see a positive environmental impact; otherwise, it's just what you suggested, "a 'stop -gap- arrangement' to escape from the public protest and media reports."