With the city corporation planning to enforce plastic ban, commercial establishments in the city are getting ready to implement it .
A Kannan, a flour supplier at Sammundipuram, has started asking his customers to bring utensils instead of polybags to carry flour home. “I have been using 800g to 1kg polybags a day to pack flour. Even customers staying close to my mill prefer polybags. But after learning about the upcoming plastic ban, I insisted that they bring utensils to buy flour. Some of them have agreed. I hope I won’t be in a position to supply polybags by next week,” he said.
“Using utensils to carry flour has been a part of our culture. When my grandmother sold idlies, the plastic revolution had not happened and buyers used to bring silver tiffin boxes and silver tumblers to carry them home. We did not have any ‘shame’ then. So the change is possible,” Kannan told TOI.
Many shopkeepers in Sammundipuram locality have already started to implement the plastic ban.
As the quantity of polybags and other use-and-throw plastic bags used in the food industry was found to be very high, the civic body had recently held meetings with representatives of hotels, tea shops and groceries.
“We interacted with many non-governmental organisations to create awareness about the plastic ban. They have been asked to visit hotels, wedding halls and other places regularly for the purposes,” said a corporation official.
