Nagpur: The single-use plastic ban implemented by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) from Saturday had a strong impact across the society on Sunday too, changing the way business is done at big restaurants, food chains, small vendors, shopkeepers, meat sellers and weekly markets.
Takeaways at city’s popular restaurants were badly affected due to inability of restaurants to immediately find alternatives to providing liquids. Well-known sweet and namkeen chains too stopped providing plastic bags. The ban resulted in 20 to 25% loss in business, said some. On the other hand, representatives of food aggregators were unaware of the ban, and had been catering to orders in plastic containers.
Unlike the first day, the civic body continued the drive on the holiday, though with milder intensity, seizing 25.7kg of plastic items, and imposing a fine of Rs8,800. The banned products were recovered from five zones while the fine came from Hanuman Nagar.
The senior manager at a popular South Indian eatery at Sadar said they have stopped 90% takeaways, “Business is down by about 25 % in two days. Biodegradable bags have been ordered, and they will come soon. There seems to be no solution for liquids, and we would be discontinuing their parcels. From Monday, we would also suspend orders from food aggregators. We can’t argue with their customers,” he said.
A popular non-veg restaurant on Katol Road switched to supplying biryani in silver foil boxes. “People are getting containers. Some are being turned away if we are short of boxes. We are facing problem in buying those boxes too as they are in high demand,” he said.
On the other hand, citizens, shopkeepers and vendors seemed to have accepted the ban, fearing harsh penalties, and made alternative arrangements for routine items. People carried vessels for buying mutton, loose milk and other liquid items, and big cloth bags for groceries, vegetables and fruits. Shopkeepers provided cloth bags and charged Rs5 from customers at many places.
“Who would take the risk of coughing up Rs5,000,” a fruit seller at Gokulpeth said.
At the weekly vegetable market in Borgaon, vendors adhered to the new rules to avoid action. “NMC officials may be around in plain clothes,” a vendor said.
A mutton seller at Sadar said people came with steel containers, and those who didn’t bring anything were given the meat in paper.
NMC health officer (sanitation) Pradip Dasarwar said though it was a holiday, yet teams with five to six health inspectors in uniform and nuisance detection squad members were deployed in each zone.
Asked what the NMC would be doing with the seized material, Dasarwar said it will be decided later. “Right now, plastic items are being kept at zone offices. Later, we will discuss about disposal with Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and act accordingly. The focus is on cutting the supply by checking plastic sellers. In a couple of days, we would take action against local shops providing plastic bags to customers for carrying goods, eatables etc,” he said.
Citizens would face action in the third phase of the anti-plastic bag drive, the health officer said.
