Karnataka Bans Plastics

[Sabyasachi Patra]

The Karnataka Government has issued a Gazette notification to completely ban plastic in the state. This ban includes manufacture, sale and storage of plastic products like carry bags, cups and plates, glasses, plastic flags, flexes, banners, buntings, sheets used in marriage hall dining tables, plastic used for sale of chips, thermocol, micro beads etc. However plastic water bottles, milk pouches, plastic bags for growing nursery plants, saline drips for hospitals are exempted from this ban.

Previously there was a ban on plastics below 40 micron thickness. The present ban is an enlarged version covering many categories of plastic use.

The Karnataka Pollution Control Board, deputy commissioners and commissioners of various local bodies in the state are supposed to implement the ban. However, whether the Government has the will power to fully and effectively implement this ban is yet to be seen.

The plastic manufacturers of Karnataka and traders have called for a “bandh” or strike to protest this ban. They are likely to cite the impact on livelihood of many people engaged in the manufacture and sale of plastics and hence are going to file a petition in the High Court. However, experts feel that the High Court is unlikely to grant any relief given the massive pollution due to plastics in recent years.

A lot of awareness needs to be raised about the harmful impacts of plastics and people need to be urged to bring along cloth or jute bags for shopping which can be reused and recycled.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

If implemented properly this can be a land mark decision which will dramatically change how our landscapes look like. One only needs to just step out of home anywhere in the country to see the magnitude of the problem which accumulation of non degradable waste creates. With the summer setting in full earnest every water ways seems to have more plastic wastes on its bone dry bed than pebbles , rocks and sand and the sight seems to have sought of sunk into our pysche that it doesn't appall us anymore almost like that of the sides of a railway track or a highway which have gone that way years ago. Beyond aesthetics, how else are we going to deal with this problem which simply seems omnipresent and has no solution ..... even scientific proof of slow poisoning seems largely ignored. If the govt is serious about Swach bharath this is the first step they should take. As rightly said there is no ' throw AWAY ' with plastic. you can throw, but it is not going away..it simply remains, long after the one who has thrown it has gone.

Rgds
Roopak