How Plastic Bans Until Now Have Fared and How it May be Tweaked for Good
Meerut, UP: Even as speculations are ripe over the union government’s plastic ban, bans of various proportions are already in place in some 25 Indian states and union territories. The most populous Indian state, Uttar Pradesh, has introduced bans multiple times. In 2018, the state government banned plastic for the third time since 2015.
The ban was floated in phases:
- From 15 July, polythene not thicker than 50 microns was banned
- From 15 August, all plastic and styrofoam including cups and plates was banned
- From 2 October, all types of plastics and disposable polythene was banned
The ban initially did see some enforcement and reduction in plastic usage, but the momentum was lost in no time. Shopkeepers blamed the state and the customers.
A shopkeeper, who has been running a bookshop in the market opposite to the bus stand at Delhi Road for four decades, told The Dispatch that raids were indeed carried out in the very beginning but they were merely attempts at extorting money.
‘Shops were raided around Dushera and Diwali [in 2018] and fines were imposed. Polythene was also seized,’ the shopkeeper said. ‘Officials only showed a portion of the seized material in their books and issued fines for them, while themselves pocketing the fine on rest of the goods, which they did not show in their books.’
‘Those enforcing the ban themselves carry polythene bags’, said an owner of a dairy in Meerut’s Rajban Bazaar, as he poured a litre of milk in a plastic bag and handed it to a customer after sealing it and putting it in another plastic carry bag. ‘If they enforce a ban on polythene’s supply,’ he said, ‘there would be no consumption, but there is no such enforcement.’
Pawan Mittal, who runs a sweets shop on Rohta Road, went back to polythene after initially switching to paper bags. He said, ‘Some people had started bringing cloth bags or paper bags but the majority continued to remain adamant for polythene. We had to switch back to polythene because of the customer who did not change their attitude.’
Sagar Nayyar, who runs a gift shop close to Mittal’s, had a similar account.
He said, ‘Polythene came back in use as customers had started to move to shops offering polythene. They asked me outright that when others in the area would offer them polythene, why wouldn’t I do the same? I was thus forced to turn to polythene again.’
The ban was greeted with skepticism ever since it was announced.
In a discussion for a Meerut-based portal, Vipul Singhal, Meerut Mandap Association’s senior functionary, said it was wrong on part of government to target 17 lakh residents of the city to make it free of polythene.
‘There are not more than six major manufacturers of polythene and twelve major distributors,’ he said. ‘These handful of people should be reined in, rather than 17 lakh residents of the city.’
In the same discussion, Navin Gupta, the president of the Sanyukt Vyapar Sangh, the city’s largest apolitical trade body, accused the concerned government officials of corrupt practices. Government policies regarding polythene have failed because rather than penalising the manufacturers and distributors, officials fill their own pockets, Gupta said.
While these trade leaders said the ban was misdirected, Vijay Pandit, who runs Green Care Society, a non-governmental organisation, said the entire policy concerning polythene was flawed and misdirected. Pandit told The Dispatch that the ban was not a solution.
‘Rather than banning the manufacturing, sale, and consumption of polythene, we should focus at its disposal,’ he said. ‘If government officials act and stop polythene manufacturing, several thousand will be unemployed and that will itself become a problem. We should therefore focus at setting up plants where various forms of plastic can be recycled. This will both help reduce the plastic menace and provide employment.’
This author had addressed this very point in this piece, where the move to curb the plastic industry employing lakhs of people was questioned in the light of the ongoing economic slowdown and an alternate was proposed.
Pandit gave the example of National Environmental Pollution Control Organization (NEPCO), one of his partner organisations in Nepal, which has set up a solid waste management plant in Nepal.
‘They are making everything out of their plant at Lalitpur in Nepal, ranging from stationary to handicrafts, utensils, bags and clothing, and even fuel for households.’ Pandit told The Dispatch.
If such a plant could work in Nepal, then why can it not work in India?
Pandit told The Dispatch that he has approached the city’s mayor multiple times regarding the city’s waste management with proposals of a NEPCO-like plant, but their proposals were never taken into consideration.
While Vijay Pandit’s proposal may not have been entertained, it’s not that waste management and recycling is not happening in the city. A city-based entrepreneur, who is also a senior Bhartiya Janta Party functionary in the city, told The Dispatch that Laxmi Kant Bajpai, who had earlier represented the city in the state assembly for fifteen years, has put up a plant that turns the waste from the city’s temples into manure.
If the lawmaker can set up a plant for recycling temple-waste into manure, why can’t a plant be set up for recycling polythene and other plastic waste?
The entrepreneur told The Dispatch that it was because of a lack of willpower.
‘A project is stuck with the municipal corporation for the past four years. People from Meerut can go to other states and set up plants there, but not in their own city, because of lack of willpower among the officials,’ he said.
In the absence of a coherent strategy and lack of will to enforce it on part of officials, the government’s clampdown on plastic fell flat. The chief minister boasted of the ban’s success on Twitter and may have replaced plastic water bottles with steel flasks in his meetings, but the reality on ground remained unchanged. Polythene and plastic have had a free run across the state despite the ban. There has been no reduction in either manufacturing or supply. Sagar Nayyar told The Dispatch that a polythene seller comes daily on his two-wheeler in his area to sell polythene to shopkeepers without any fear of the ban.
So in absence of viable alternatives and the ban’s proper enforcement, the union government’s ban is also at the risk of turning into a major humiliation. Also, in case it is properly enforced and curbs the plastic industry, its impact on the economy around plastic would be considerable. Industry estimates suggest that over 5 lakhs people are employed in the industry whose jobs will be at risk in case of the ban. How prudent is it then to curb an industry at the time when the manufacturing is already sluggish, the demand is low, and there are more and more layoffs by the day?
The plastic ban is therefore not as simple as it may appear to be. The government is playing with fire here, one that may burn its credibility if the ban is not properly enforced (as we have seen before) or driving down the industry in case it’s properly enforced.
Rather than banning, the solution may lie in recycling. The government ought to emphasise on 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, with a special emphasis on recycle, as investment into setting up recycling infrastructure will lead to further industrial output (and jobs!) rather than bring it down, as the ban may do. In the meantime, the government can deliberate and introduce viable alternatives to plastic and once both of these steps are in place, the government may then go full-throttle on plastic.
This is the second story in our series on plastic. Follow this space for more such stories.
