Street vendors hand out plastic bags for want of cheaper alternative | Express
BENGALURU: Over the last three years, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) authorities have seized more than one lakh kilo of plastic (which can fill close to four, standard-size shipping containers) and levied a penalty close to Rs 2 crore. But, plastic use remains rampant.
This year’s theme for Environment Day, which falls on June 5, is ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’. Karnataka government had banned plastic below 40 micron in 2015 and, a year later, banned the use and manufacturing of plastic bags of any thickness under Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986. Since then, authorities have been conducting raids and seizing plastic materials, but they say they are severely short-staffed.
Each ward has a health inspector but one person per ward is insufficient, they say. An official, on condition of anonymity, said, “Whenever there is raid, two to three health inspectors from different wards go collectively go and conduct the raid. But, we have few people and this ban is difficult to implement because of that”.
BBMP Joint Commissioner (Health) Sarfaraz Khan said that they are frequently conducting raids on plastic manufacturing units and vendors, but large quantities of polythene bags come from outside the state into Bengaluru. “Also, poorer traders such as the street vendors do not have a cheaper alternative to plastic bags. Customers do not carry their own bags and these vendors stock up. Vendors say that if they don’t offer a bag, people go to a different vendor who will,” said Khan.
BBMP is planning to hold discussions with cloth-bag manufacturers for cheaper alternatives. “If they are available, like bags made from cloth or recycled paper, then vendors will switch,” he said. Khan said that people too should get into the habit of carrying bags for shopping, else too many plastic covers end up in garbage vans.
Conscientious Bengalureans like Shruthi Naveen, a resident of Girinagar, carry cloth bags for shopping. Shruthi said that the responsibility, of making the ban successful also lies with regular people. “I have seen people coming to shops with no cloth bags in hand. As long as they use plastic bags, vendors will supply them,” she said.
Solid-waste management experts, however, blamed BBMP for not enforcing ban. Speaking to The New Indian Express, N Ramakanth who is a member of the BBMP Solid Waste Management Expert Committee said that the city generates 4,000 metric tonne of waste every day, of which 40 per cent (1,600 tone) is dry waste. Out of the 1,600 tonne, at least 20 per cent (400 tonne) is low-calorie plastic which has no takers. This waste litters the city, blocking drains and getting mixed with wet waste, slowing down the segregation and composting process.
Additional Chief Secretary of Forest, Ecology and Environment Department has instructed all urban local bodies including the BBMP to conduct raids on plastic-manufacturing units and vendors once in week, with a team headed by Karnataka State Pollution Control Board officials. “We hope this will bring down the menance,” said Ramakanth said, adding that this drive should include the transport department too, to stop plastic entering the city at check posts.
How private firms could help
Solid-waste management expert N Ramakanth, “In Bengaluru, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility programme, ITC takes in this waste from 62 wards for K2 per kilo from pourakarmikas who get around K200 extra every month from this.
The diversified business group passes this on to a cement factory. At least from these wards, low-calorie plastic waste does not come to BBMP. We need more companies to take up such initiatives under CSR”.
