Milk, meat, fish vendors suffer most as plastic ban unfolds in Mumbai

Team TOI
MUMBAI: The absence of viable alternatives to plastic carry bags was most keenly felt in loose milk, meat and fish markets. Brown paper bags emit a foul smell which permeates food packed in it while cloth bags drip and get soiled. Steel containers are the only option.


Retailers say prices of all items will rise exponentially owing to additional input costs.


On Saturday some meat vendors continued to use plastic bags but camouflaged it by wrapping it in newspaper. The owner of a mutton shop in Jogeshwari said, "We are exhausting our stock of plastic over the weekend. But eventually customers will have to bring containers. For home delivery, we will dispatch our vessels which they can empty out."

Fishmongers in Bhandup began to hand out what they thought were colourful cloth bags, only these were the non woven variety that is also banned.

Chicken sellers in Mulund tried using newspapers or brown paper bags. Eggs were sold in brown paper bags which cost 75 paise to Re 1 each and retailers are finding this expensive.

Cold storages that sell multiple items like fish, chicken and meat are weighed down by the investment and effort that the ban necessitates. Robert Parmar of Joseph Cold Storage in Bandra said, "We would prepare 20 kg mince in the morning and pack pouches to sell through the day. Now that is stopped. Different meats will need to be packaged in different containers. Plastic was good for all. We have purchased cloth bags to home deliver mutton, chicken and fish but we will have to buy aluminum boxes for mince. Cloth bags will have to be washed everytime. As for buyers who come to the shop we are requesting them to bring their own vessels."

Anil Joseph of the same store said they were struggling to deliver items like meat, chicken and eggs to its customers on Saturday. "We are placing eggs in paper bags but they can't take the weight unlike plastic. Even if the eggs are damaged we won’t come to know and (will have to) replace them for the client," said a man at the counter.

Chicken and mutton will be a bigger challenge, said Anil Joseph. "We will use butter paper and silver foil to wrap them. But foil can hold up to 700 gms. Many of our clients take over 2 kgs. How will we manage?” he said, adding that they may have to use small containers.

Customers will have a tough time in the days to come. "Meat will get soggy if wrapped in paper and mincemeat will stick to the paper," he said. His shop sells 2,000 kgs of meat and around 2,000 eggs daily. "At the moment there is no substitute to plastic. We have stopped giving carry bags from today. Although we used some plastic bags today, the real problem will start from Monday," he said. Joseph added that clients will have to pay 20 rupees extra for containers.

Butter paper, he said, starts dripping after sometime.