Delhi Debates Plastic Bag Ban

Editor’s note: this is a guest post by Dr. Vandana Prakash, an Environmental Policy expert.

Delhiites are once again embroiled in a hot environmental debate–this time over plastic bags. Delhi High Court’s decision to ban plastic bags for all shopping sounds dramatic. However, there is no deadline for implementation. As of now, use of non-biodegradable plastic bags, even large bags and those with a greater than normal thickness of 40 micrometers, continues to be allowed.

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?

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