Activists join BBMP to evict plastic from flower show
TNN | Updated: Jan 25, 2019, 06:43 IST
ON A GREEN MISSION: Activists from Beautiful Bengaluru have been working on waste management at the flower showBENGALURU: Enforcing plastic ban at the Lalbagh Republic Day Flower Show — which sees tens of thousands of visitors every day — is no mean feat. But a few civic volunteers have ramped up their outreach activities by conducting what they call ‘sting operations’ to check the menace.
“While the BBMP team is visiting Lalbagh daily and cracking down on offenders, vendors have started recognising them and hide their banned plastic and non-woven polypropylene (NWPP) bags on seeing the officers. A couple of us bought flowers on Thursday and asked for a bag. The vendor handed us a banned bag, and we gestured to a BBMP officer, who then issued a warning to him,” said Odette Katrak of Beautiful Bengaluru (BB) , which along with Saahas Zero Waste and the Lalbagh West Volunteers Group has been working on waste management at the show.
On Thursday, the volunteers took off their recognisable green vests and visited the stalls to see what kind of materials the vendors were using. They conducted the sting operations at two stalls.
Since the flower show kicked off on January 18, the BBMP has seized 25kg of banned plastic and NWPP bags, and levied fines worth Rs 3,000. “On the first three days, we only issued warnings. After that we started penalising those caught with more than 0.5kg of plastic. Lalbagh authorities have banned the sale and entry of plastic mineral water bottles on the premises. This time, 65% of the vendors seem to be aware of the ban, and there has been a reduction in plastic generation,” said a BBMP health inspector.
“There seems to be 90% lesser plastic at the show than last time, with a lot of people bringing their own cloth bags. A few stalls are selling cloth bags for Rs 5-Rs 25 and many people are buying them,” said Sonia Sharma of BB.
“A traffic cop was using a megaphone to make announcements outside Lalbagh main gate and we asked him to tell people they should throw garbage only in the designated bins. Also, those littering would be captured by CCTV cameras and their pictures may even be displayed on TV,” said Odette.
“While the BBMP team is visiting Lalbagh daily and cracking down on offenders, vendors have started recognising them and hide their banned plastic and non-woven polypropylene (NWPP) bags on seeing the officers. A couple of us bought flowers on Thursday and asked for a bag. The vendor handed us a banned bag, and we gestured to a BBMP officer, who then issued a warning to him,” said Odette Katrak of Beautiful Bengaluru (BB) , which along with Saahas Zero Waste and the Lalbagh West Volunteers Group has been working on waste management at the show.
On Thursday, the volunteers took off their recognisable green vests and visited the stalls to see what kind of materials the vendors were using. They conducted the sting operations at two stalls.
Since the flower show kicked off on January 18, the BBMP has seized 25kg of banned plastic and NWPP bags, and levied fines worth Rs 3,000. “On the first three days, we only issued warnings. After that we started penalising those caught with more than 0.5kg of plastic. Lalbagh authorities have banned the sale and entry of plastic mineral water bottles on the premises. This time, 65% of the vendors seem to be aware of the ban, and there has been a reduction in plastic generation,” said a BBMP health inspector.
“There seems to be 90% lesser plastic at the show than last time, with a lot of people bringing their own cloth bags. A few stalls are selling cloth bags for Rs 5-Rs 25 and many people are buying them,” said Sonia Sharma of BB.
“A traffic cop was using a megaphone to make announcements outside Lalbagh main gate and we asked him to tell people they should throw garbage only in the designated bins. Also, those littering would be captured by CCTV cameras and their pictures may even be displayed on TV,” said Odette.
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