Delhi Debates Plastic Bag Ban
Editor’s note: this is a guest post by Dr. Vandana Prakash, an Environmental Policy expert.
The check and balance function of the different arms of the government (judiciary v/s executive) in a federal system is certainly eye-catching. On the one hand, the implementers appear to be skirting around the court-order by seeking deviations (allowing ‘degradable,’ more stringently configured bags); on the other hand, they seem to be abiding by court-order on containing the menace of plastic bags.
Plastic bags have become part and parcel of a Delhiite’s daily life. People reuse each bag numerous times — even after multiple washes. That is also remarkable considering that the bags are often made with very thin material. In the end, in the absence of proper disposal mechanism, the bag appears on the roads of Delhi, littering streets, clogging drains, choking rivers and peeping-out intact when any soil is dug-up.
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The government recognizes that plastic-bags are a way of life in Delhi and are nearly impossible to get rid of. So, it has made each bag more valuable by stipulating conditions like a minimum thickness of 40 micrometers, a minimum size of 20X30cm and a ‘degradable’ material. The government also hopes that rag-pickers (responsible for much of recycling) will find it worth their while to pick them for recycling-sale, thus not leaving them littering the streets.
Personally, I think this is where the crux of the problem lies. The need of the hour is to have better mechanisms for recycling. Delhiites are doing their very best by reusing each bag many and many times over. But, in the end, they still have no ways to dispose of the plastic bags. The best brains (both judiciary and executive) must put greater thought into innovative schemes for the final disposal of these non-biodegradable bags. Rather than sitting and hoping, incentives must be consciously provided to make it worth somebody’s while to properly dispose of these bags, especially in the absence of a deeply ingrained culture for keeping public places clean. How about a recycling scheme that lets people exchange plastic bags for durable polypropylene bags?
Certain aspects of the court-order leave me perplexed. Probably concerned by claims that 90% of DeIhi’s plastic is recycled illegally, the court has asked for closure of illegal recycling units. But it is this recycling that provided incentive for removal of stray plastic bags. Is closure the best way forward? Must not solutions be examined first to regularize the recycling procedures? I also wonder how feasible it is to implement such a complicated law. The court-order seeks to drive-away plastic bags from small fruit/vegetable stalls and shops, those working within the tightest margins. Can they afford the costlier alternatives or will they have to be devious? In recent memory, some Delhiites moved from using cloth bags to the more commonplace plastic ones. Will they not continue using plastics? How will the government ensure that Delhiiites do not carry edibles in plastic bags as they have done and prefer to do?
Interesting article; I agree with the author. More recycling is needed. We visited Kulu Manali in India, another city where plastic bags are banned, and were suprised by how clean the area looked.
Very interesting perspective. Awareness of the masses will go a long way in countries like India. BTW, I wonder why the “raddiwala”(the door-to-door peron who buys scrap recycling material) doesn’t buy the plastic bags too, like old newspapers, bottles etc?
It is good that Delhi has woken up to the costs imposed by these plastic bags before it faces catastrophic flooding of drains. However, changing habits is difficult and as the author comments, perhaps more incentives may spur the change. Making it easier to recycle should also help and using shopping baskets, which was common about 20 years ago, could also be encouraged.
I read the other day that an entreprenuer has succeeded in turning plasic bags and other plastic waste into attractive and profitably marketable products. That is one use that recycled plastics can be put to. India’s poverty allows rag-picking to become a source of gainful employment–at least, so far. But if consumers could be motivated, or even gently pressured, to ensure seggregrating trash effectively, reusing it profitably could, hopefully, become a regular business.
The initiative here must come from local, state and federal governments with NGOs taking part energetically so that costs of collection can be brought down and “raw material” availabilty enlarged and ensured, and, at affordable cost.
Indeed, the value of trash is being recognised more and more. So much so that some communities in Delhi are even getting paid for their trash to be collected and removed!
A question to the author and to Ecanjels, Sam, rp and Sharad - do you and members of your family refuse the p bag when you go shopping? I ask because I see elite shoppers carrying away scores of plastic bags - in two months in Delhi I have not come across a single person who has refused the plastic bag - at vegetable markets in particular.
Best news in a long time, for a city choked with pollution.
Good job…
its gud wat all is happening in delhi …..but wat all shud be done before is being done now…but for how long does this procedure is gonna take place… for few more months and again delhi govt. and delhi police will go for a long ….sleep…and when they will wake up it will to late….so kindly look after for wat r u doing and continue the procedure…..in every place not only by taking one step..u have acheived everything..u need to climg up the whole sairs as dis is only the first step….!
I do not support, practically these types of things cannot be implemented in a place like delhi. Sad but true…