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India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi
- vanattab 10y agoCan we get the title changed to make it clear that India banned plastic in Delhi not all of India. Also the title says "literally all disposable plastic" then in the article it says applies to cups, bags, cutlery.
- sctb 10y agoThanks, we've updated the submission title to a representative phrase from the article.
- flubert 10y agoTitle should probably mention that the plastic banned is disposable bags, cups, and cutlery. Not IV bags, syringes, laptops, bike helmets, etc..
- rodionos 10y agoMy thought exactly: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-delhi-bans-disposable-plastic-single-use-a7545541.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/india-delhi-ban...
- khrbrt 10y agoOr maybe find a better article source? Maybe a good local Dehli paper?
- seltzered_ 10y agoI just read three different articles on this subject and it's not clear if disposable plastic bottles (bottles, not cups) are also banned. I'd argue this is one of the bigger problems as displayed by some of the images used in the articles, and personal experiences of travelling india and seeing miles of train tracks littered with plastic bottles. The reason I mention this is that it may be directing action to local vendors, but not necessarily regional/national drink vendors.
- seltzered_ 10y agoFor those absurdly curious in trying to find an original source on the proposal/ruling, this is the closest I've found so far: http://bspcb.bih.nic.in/NGT%20Judgemt%20dt%2022.12.2016%20in%20OA199%20%20of%202014,%20Almitra%20H%20Patel%20Vs%20Union%20of%20India.pdf http://bspcb.bih.nic.in/NGT%20Judgemt%20dt%2022.12.2016%20in... - skip to point #23 on page 63 for the thing about banning plastic: "We further direct that the use of disposable plastic glasses is prohibited in entire NCT, Delhi at hotels, restaurants and public as well as private functions. The NCT, Delhi shall take appropriate steps against storage, sale and use of such plastic material at above places and it shall stand prohibited w.e.f. 01st of January, 2017." Note that this still mentions more about plastic cups, not bottles.
- SteveNuts 10y agoBanning it is one thing, we'll see if they can actually enforce it.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- enraged_camel 10y agoIf Rwanda can enforce it, I don't see why Delhi can't. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/15/rwanda-banned-plastic-bags-so-can-we https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/15/rwanda...
- ryanong 10y agoI think one reason could be because Delhi doesn't have it's own border control? But yea I get it, there are lots of things that can be done to enforce it.
- jpatokal 10y agoRwanda is a pint-sized dictatorship governed with an iron first. Delhi is a howling cesspit of chaos. In addition to the obvious enforcement problems in Delhi itself, Delhi is only a small part of the National Capital Region, meaning tons of plastic will flow in from Haryana and UP even if Delhi does manage to clean up its act.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- s334 10y agoAmen to that. I feel the same whenever I see a news along the lines of "India has banned ${something-that-sounds-nice}". Indian (and State) govt(s) need to start enforcing what they say.
- libso 10y agotitlegore "Delhi has banned disposable plastic" Not all of India. Just Delhi.
- xyzzy4 10y agoPlastic is the least of Delhi's problems. First they should be banning vehicles that don't meet emission standards. I visited there twice and I'll be lucky if I don't come down with some lung problem. Edit: They should ban the burning of plastic, not plastic itself. And enforce it.
- popobobo 10y agoNo matter what we do it will never wipe away your prejudice, my friend.
- horsecaptin 10y agoHaha. Cleaner air takes perceptions a long way =).
- knowaveragejoe 10y agoI fail to see what the above has to do with prejudice, personally. Poor air quality is a problem in many parts of the world, notably so in developing areas.
- neeleshs 10y agoWhile prejudice is not probably the correct interpretation, the GPs post reads like "don't ban plastic until air pollution is fixed". Any improvement is better than nothing.
- UweSchmidt 10y agoThe prejudice seems to be "ah India, nice try but you still fail badly in an unrelated area" while in fact in this regard Delhi is more progressive than much of Europe and the US. Reducing plastic waste is a step in the right direction and should not be dismissed just because there are other problems that may be harder to fix right now.
- snowpanda 10y ago>"ah India, nice try but you still fail badly in an unrelated area" That's not what a prejudice is. It's also not what he said. Maybe if people wouldn't be so hypersensitive we could address the problems a country might be facing. India has many issues. So what if he points that out, while we're discussing a different issue? It's part of having a conversation.
- Maarten88 10y agoRwanda also has this policy, since 2008, and they enforce it. The country is very clean, it looks different than other African countries (and countries like the US), just because there is no plastic rubbish everywhere. I think this is a very good policy, and would welcome it at home. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/15/rwanda-banned-plastic-bags-so-can-we https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/15/rwanda...
- greglindahl 10y agoParts of the US have this policy (plastic bags), too. I thought I'd dislike it, but then I realized how amazing it was that most plastic rubbish disappeared.
- droopyEyelids 10y agoMylar chip bags and 20oz soda bottles... What a revolution for litter and health it'd be if we got rid of those, too.
- tallanvor 10y agoPlastic bottles and cans really need to have a nationwide deposit system in the US - the way Norway does it helps a lot - they have either a 1 or 2.5kr deposit depending on the size of the bottle, and all the grocery stores have a machine that you feed them into that checks for the label and gives you a slip to get the money from the cashier. It'd be nice if we could find a way to extend that type of system to other types of waste, but that gets more difficult.
- Xylakant 10y agodeposit systems have a limited lifetime, the get killed by inflation. For example, glass beer bottles in GER have a deposit of 8 cent. This used to be 15 Pfennig, a pretty high amount when the deposit was introduced. But since you can't raise the deposit (bottles suddenly would raise in value) and inflation pushes down the purchasing power, even bottle collectors tend to leave glass bottles behind.
- CaiGengYang 10y agoWhat are they going to replace plastic with ? Can you invent a kind of material that is as capable as plastic but has zero negative effects on the environment ?
- codemac 10y agoIt's not that it needs to be equally capable in each way - you need something that is more degradable and ecologically sensible for each specific case.
- greglindahl 10y agoOr, in some cases, reusable. Most places in the US that have banned disposable plastic grocery bags are encouraging reusable bags.
- DrScump 10y agoSome chains had been giving discounts for "bring-your-own-bag" even before the outright bag ban. Sprouts still does!
- markdown 10y agoEg: http://mashable.com/2016/03/26/edible-spoon-bakeys/ http://mashable.com/2016/03/26/edible-spoon-bakeys/
- djsumdog 10y agoWash and reuse steel cutlery? (I know people who carry little tins with forks, spoons and chopsticks they can assemble and reuse). Seattle has a plastic bag ban and you can use paper bags or just bring you own reusable bags. Bottled water in developed nations is typically less regulated (and has a lower quality) than tap water. This doesn't apply to India of course, but maybe this will force Delhi to seriously fix their municipal water supply to world standards. Even if it doesn't, most homes and restaurants have water filters, and people can simply carry reusable bottles even plastic ones (the disposable variety are what's banned).
- throwaway420 10y agoNot a huge fan of outright bans, and think this is probably the wrong priority for India to focus on. (I understand this is just Delhi) Air pollution is huge right now. And sad to say, people pooping in streets and rivers is still a major problem. To me, plastic remnants are a very minor issue in comparison.
- pilsetnieks 10y agoBut a ban on plastic bags is easy, it is quick and immediate. Whereas the other problems you mention may take decades, if ever, to solve. At least they're doing something. And it's not like the people enforcing the ban would be the same people who would otherwise install air and water filtration systems. If there's anything India does have in abundance, it's manpower.
- mstodd 10y agoSo what if it's fast and easy? Plastic bags are incredibly efficient. They're popular for a reason. If you want to keep people impoverished, this is how you do it
- bendermon 10y agoEven if you poop in your fancy bungalow toilet, it does end up in the rivers, along with detergent and toxic toilet cleaners. Banning disposable plastic and non biodegradable detergents would go a great way in letting microbes and plants do their job in cleaning up the environment. With plastics not clogging up the rivers and chemicals not killing all river life, the rivers would definitely run much cleaner. This move was incidentally meant to curb air pollution, so clean rivers or oceans are an added benefit.
- SixSigma 10y ago> along with detergent and toxic toilet cleaners. don't forget corpses http://www.planetcustodian.com/2015/10/19/8134/over-50-scary-images-depicting-filth-of-varanasi-and-river-ganges-that-went-viral-in-china.html http://www.planetcustodian.com/2015/10/19/8134/over-50-scary...
- bendermon 10y agoNote: Thank you for down voting for pointing out a glaring 'fake statistics' and poor journalism, on a #1 trending post on HN. The first and the second quote do not mean the same thing, not even close. "A massive 60%t of the plastic waste in the oceans is said to have come from India, according to the Times of India." The TOI reads - "Banning disposable plastic is a huge step for the capital and the country because India is among the top four biggest plastic polluters in the world, responsible for around 60% of the 8.8 million tons of plastic that is dumped into the world’s oceans every year." As an Indian, I see a lot of journalists stuck in a colonial era. They go out of their way to tarnish and stereotype the great unwashed. They manage to turn even positive news to mock and heckle the less developed world. But this article has taken it to great heights. The TOI isn't exactly known for journalistic integrity and often conveniently pulls statistics from their backside. But to misquote the devil, this article has certainly hit the lowest level.
- masonic 10y agoIs their claim factually incorrect?
- mvemjsn 10y agoHard to say definitively, but the claim seems likely to be wrong. According to this link, India is far from the worst offender. http://billmoyers.com/2015/02/19/theres-horrifying-amount-plastic-ocean-chart-shows-whos-blame-2/ http://billmoyers.com/2015/02/19/theres-horrifying-amount-pl...
- bendermon 10y agoThe article claims - India contributes 60% of the plastic in the ocean. From the Times of India (TOI) article that it refers to - "India is among the four largest contributor who in total contribute 60%". Which considering a journalist's honesty definitely means India is the fourth largest contributor, which would mean India at most contributes 15% of the waste. That is a long way from the 60% claimed. Considering the reputation of TOI, even the milder claim is quite suspect.
- toephu2 10y agoI don't understand how we can build self-driving cars, send people to the moon, and create advanced facial recognition software, but can't build technology that can separate plastic bags?
- maxander 10y agoRecognizing a plastic bag is tech on par with two of the techs you list (and arguably beyond sending a man to the moon.) Making a robot that can recognize plastic bags and manipulate them is harder. And applying that level of expertise to a public works problem in a capitalist society is even harder. (In response to the obvious counterargument; the configuration space of "a plastic bag mixed in with a bunch of random junk" is actually probably larger than the configuration space for a road with a dozen other cars on it, and so is the action space of a reasonably dextrous claw/arm greater than that of a car. AI is full of easy-sounding things that are really difficult.)
- eru 10y agoOh, you can probably make it work. The question is: can you make it work cheap enough? Sending people to the moon wasn't cheap..
- prawn 10y agoDoesn't solve the issue of plastic bags littering the streets. We have a plastic bag ban where I live and it's great.
- bogomipz 10y agoThis is great news! I have a question maybe someone from Delhi could answer, the article states: "The ban took effect on the first day of 2017." What are the vendors doing? Is water being sold in glass bottles with a deposit scheme for redemption now?
- Synaesthesia 10y agoAs the article says, the ban includes bags, cups and cutlery.
- thunderstrike 10y agoI'm curious to know this as well. It would be cool if they implemented this in the U.S., even if only for the return to dominance of the glass bottle soda.
- bogomipz 10y agoIt interesting in many places in South America glass bottles are the norm, they get sterilized and reused. You see crates of them stacked up outside the kioskos waiting to be picked up. You pay a deposit on the bottle and get a redemption when you return it. This isn't a new development either, its just kind of the way its always been. I am not sure why plastic didn't become as dominant in many of those countries.
- thunderstrike 10y agoThis is extremely interesting, I wonder what it would take to get this implemented in the United States?
- bogomipz 10y agoI think just a shift in mentality and a bit of legislation. This would actually be a shift back in the United States really. There was a time when milk and soft drinks came in glass bottles as a matter of course. Its actually good for companies bottom lines as well. This from a Coca Cola earning's call: "Returnable bottles all the rage You may remember a time when you went to the grocery store and bought returnable glass bottles of Coca-Cola, Sprite, or the mostly forgotten Tab brand. After you finished with the bottles you returned them to the store for a deposit refund. In the United States, the last of the 6.5 ounce returnable bottles were finished during October 2012 at a bottling facility in Minnesota. In Latin America the returnable bottles continue and contribute greatly to Coca-Cola FEMSA's top line growth in every geographic region. In Mexico, returnable packages grew 5%. Affordability and the desire to reduce environmental impact increased consumer appeal. Latin Americans, specifically Mexicans, faced with a shrinking pocketbook remain keen on ways to save money. Coca-Cola FEMSA wants to invest more in returnables to appease consumers' increasingly frugal nature." I'm of the opinion that beverages actually taste better from bottles, thats part of the magic of the "Mexican Coke"(along with using real sugar as opposed to corn syrup.) Source: https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/11/23/5-interesting-takeaways-from-coca-cola-femsas-earn.aspx https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/11/23/5-interest...
- geodel 10y agoI do not see any coverage in Indian media. Could it be one of those official notifications which public at large hardly follows but it breeds corruption by enforcement officials. Though looking at Indian papers I came across this rather frightening news: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollution/india-tops-list-of-countries-in-ozone-pollution-deaths/articleshow/57156322.cms http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollutio...
- tn13 10y agoThat is how India rolls. I am not sure how the poor street food vendors survive if they cant use plastic plates and spoons. If they are forced to use steel plates and spoons that is a health and safety nightmare in India.
- bendermon 10y agoThere are plenty of cost effective traditional alternatives. Banana leaves, hand made leaf plates, machine made leaf plates, in the worst case paper plates. Plastics are just convenient and cheap, if the environmental costs are not considered. Edible cutlery http://www.bakeys.com/ http://www.bakeys.com/
- 65827 10y agoYour idea of "cost effective" is quite different from an Indian street vendor.
- geodel 10y agoBanana leaves may be traditional and popular in southern India where banana grows aplenty. In Delhi banana leaves would be used in chic restaurants with traditional touch. It is no way going to be used by street vendors. I have normally seen steel plates/spoon used by street vendors. Not very hygienic as they just rinse in water after use.
- slezakattack 10y ago
- walrus01 10y agoI wish that they could find a way to do this in the Islamabad/Rawalpindi area. Due to a lack of budget and government coordination for large scale trash pick up, nearly every stream and ravine in the area is the designated trash dumping grounds. It's thoroughly littered with plastic shopping bags and plastic bottles. It won't solve the problem of people throwing trash on nearly any available piece of unclaimed or unusable land, but at least it'll be paper based or biodegradable.
- X86BSD 10y agoWhy only Delhi?! That country is drowning in filth not just Delhi.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- throwaway5363 10y agoThe state of Karnataka has a ban in place [1] since last year and as a resident of Bangalore I can confirm that the ban is effective in reducing the use of plastic where it is indeed avoidable. [1] http://m.timesofindia.com/city/bengaluru/Total-plastic-ban-in-Karnataka/articleshow/51397198.cms http://m.timesofindia.com/city/bengaluru/Total-plastic-ban-i...
- upofadown 10y ago>The ban includes bags, cups and cutlery. What about all the plastic containers the food originally came in?
- tormeh 10y agoThose increase longevity on the shelves. Plastic food packaging is usually a net win because of the waste it prevents. Glad they didn't ban that.
- noahmbarr 10y agoAll too often it seems US restaurants do the quick calculus of going 100% disposable cutelry/etc, making a decision we'll still be dealing with 50 years from now.... I am very supportive of these types programs, even if hard to enforce.
- rjurney 10y agoThis is awesome. When I was in India ten years ago, everywhere we went in rural India the trees along creeks, rivers and streams were littered with plastic bags from where floods had deposited them. They were like leaves, and the trees were dead. They had already banned plastic bags locally in that province, and it is good to see a global ban on plastic in general. In Himachal Pradesh, the plastic bag ban had resulted in a cottage industry forming where discarded newspapers were folded/glued into shopping bags. I'd like to see this same thing happen in the US. A friend imported a palette of these bags to Florida, and he was able to sell them to vendors and make a small profit. This tells me they might be viable here commercially. As they say, reduce > re-use > recycle.
- dirkg 10y agoGood in principle, will cause hardships for many in practice. There are probably millions of street vendors who rely on plastic to pack food to go, as well as many other shops of course. There are many other priorities to focus on which can have a far bigger impact.
- awqrre 10y agono more plastic trash bags... and of course no more using grocery bags as trash bags...
- theparanoid 10y agoHere in California single use plastic bags are banned. Now it's a pain, at checkout you either have to tell them how many multiuse bags to charge or bring bags from home. No so many years ago paper bags were common and what I used. Paper is great, it's biodegradable, renewable, and convenient.
- icantdrive55 10y agoIn my town they banned plastic. (People grumbled because their wasen't a problem with litter here, but it might end up in the ocean? So--o.k.) We still have plastic tooth picks everywhere. Those little white tooth picks. ( I knew the spoiled brat who's took daddy's idea, along with unlimited funds, and is a 1 perecenter now. (It was so hard watching dad give this kid anything he wanted, including a yacht in high school. He gave him some great dental product ideas, encouraged him with funds, new toys, to stick with the products. When he found college boring, he went back to the nice office dad rented, along with staff, and made a few calls--calls dad researched, and they sold tooth picks/dental picks.) O.K. We were forced to buy paper bags. I'll bottle up my envy. At first, people refused, but after being told, "You have to leave you back pack at the front of the store under the watchful eye of Mr. IdontgiveadambecauseIhatethiscompany; we just bought the paper bags. I still try to bring on a reusable bag though, but 95% just buy the 5 cent bag. I don't want to know where the money goes. I'm waiting for the first lawsuit. "Why are women allowed to bring on whatever purse/bag they desire, but I can't bring in a small back pack? A pack with a few thousand of gear in it?" The paper bag companies must be doing backflips? The whole store is filled with plastic, I kinda don't get the ban. The amount of plastic packagaging that goes into theft prevention, and advertising is mind boggling, but we are demonizing the plastic bag? What would Dr. 350/hr. say? Projection? Or, a carefully designed plan to divert our attention to the blatant problems of manufacturing? Yes--most of the crap we eat is manufactured too. We--I am not we. I am poor. Maybe that's the only advatage to not having much money? You can't eat too terrible, or buy too much?
- wcarron 10y agoIt's really not a pain. Every store sells paper bags at 10¢ a bag.
- 10y ago
- edblarney 10y agoIt's great. But the 'trash problem' in India runs deeper. They need to have anti-litter regulation, awareness campaigns, and enforcement.
- whitenoice 10y agoIts in progress: Swachh Bharat (Clean India) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swachh_Bharat_Abhiyan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swachh_Bharat_Abhiyan
- kumarski 10y agoHopefully it is enforced.
- wallace_f 10y agoThe economist inside me says it would be better to tax disposable plastic. The tax could cover the cost to clean up the litter. That would create jobs in three ways: 1) plastic clean-up jobs, 2) businesses and economic activity that desperately need disposable plastic can still possibly survive, and ) jobs making disposable plastic. Anyways, it's a lot better than taxing things we all agree we want more of. Like jobs.
- cheesy_dionysus 10y agoLocal governments in India (mostly all of them) tax disposable plastic already.
- wallace_f 10y agoThen the tax was not high enough. The role of government should not be to use heavy-handed rules that arbitrarily distort market and place limits on freedoms. It can work out better for everyone to govern the externalities of human behaviour through market incentives. Everyone can win in that situation. People that still really need disposable plastic can still buy it if they need it that much. In other words, there is a price equilibrium where the cost of plastic pollution to society is less than the revenue generated by plastic goods consumption. One of my favourite examples of this concept is marijuana laws in Colorado. 1 BB in gov rev, 200 MM in tax rev alone. Less spent on law enforcement. Less crime due to a black market. Less innocents in jail that are spending tax dollars instead of producing them. Everyone wins except the DEA and prison system. edit, source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/marijuana-tax-revenue-hit-200-million-in-colorado-as-sales-pass-1-billion-2017-02-10 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/marijuana-tax-revenue-hit-2...
- chimeracoder 10y ago> People that still really need disposable plastic can still buy it if they need it that much. In other words, there is a price equilibrium where the cost of plastic pollution to society is less than the revenue generated by plastic goods consumption. Your theory is correct, but you're not taking into account that, in Delhi, it's far easier (read: cheaper) to enforce a ban on the sale/use than it is to ensure tax compliance. Delhi proper is twice the population of Colorado, and the metro area has four times the population of Colorado. Combine that with a relatively porous implementation of laws, and it's just way easier to go for a complete ban.
- agentgt 10y agoIf you are not using reusable bags when going to the grocery store (or any store) please attempt to try it. It absolutely amazing how many more groceries you can put in a reusable bag over a plastic or paper bags. So at the bare minimum it is an optimization (less trips from car to kitchen). When I bring this up with people I get unbelievable false rationalization like: I reuse the bags for trash or the reusable bags take 100x to make over plastic bags. Plastic grocery bags have knack of flying into lakes, rivers and streams. I have saved many turtles and fish a long the Charles river that are caught in these bags. I have never seen a kitchen trash bag or a reusable bag in the river. Many grocery stores even give a discount if you use reusable bags not to mention reusable bags are extremely cheap (I don't think I have ever paid more than $2).
- piyushpr134 10y agoI am pretty sure this would lead to this. Bangalore already has this ban and most grocery stores use disposables or use biodegradable plastic. In Mumbai(Bombay), every plastic bag costs INR 3 to buy from grocer. This works well in large shops but not so much in mom and pop who give it for free
- aaronmdjones 10y agoHere in England, we recently introduced a tax on all "single-use" plastic grocery bags located in "large" supermarkets (so, all the common ones) of 50p per bag. The reusable, stronger, larger bags that one can keep in the boot (trunk) cost only twice that, and pay for themselves after only 1 supermarket trip. I have four of them -- they also stack inside of each other, so only take up the space of one. I know several people that refuse to use them and keep getting multiple single-use bags and paying another £2.50 or so every time they go shopping. It boggles the mind!
- hive_mind 10y agoThis is India. Starving, thirsty, injured (hit by cars and trucks) cows and dogs roam the streets, hobbling along, limping along. There are people starving on the street-side. The poorest children are openly prostituted on the streets. How are they going to enforce a rule regarding plastic bags? The rich will continue to do whatever they want. The middle-classes will continue to do whatever they can get away with. The poor will continue to be shit on and abused. ------------ About 20 years ago they banned smoking in public in Delhi (I was there when they did it). All that this ordinance did was to give the police yet another angle to harass people. More corruption. More bribes.
- tluyben2 10y agoSmoking in public seems a bit extreme, but for instance smoking in bars/restaurants was introduced in the country where I lived first in 2006 and tightened in 2011 but a lot of bars still just kept doing it. Especially in small villages. Until some of them were fined; the fines are so high that they basically have to close and have debts after that. Even for 'rich' people this is a too much. Since a few of those were made public, no-one dares to do it anymore. But in public seems ... very hard to enforce. So one would think, with plastic, just fine the people giving/selling the plastic bags. If you give/sell a non degradable plastic bag it has to carry a return deposit of $25 per bag or you get fined, as a shop, $200k. Plastic bags will be gone in no time flat. Far easier to enforce and too rich, also for the rich. Good for companies and the world as they can sell paper bags and biodegradable bags.
- someonenice 10y agoPublic Smoking ban has been largely effective in India. You rarely see people smoking in public areas. The effectiveness of these laws are that it allows concerned citizens to raise their voice when they see law is being broken.
- ankit28595 10y agoI would have to disagree. I travel by public transport and I see plenty of people smoking at the bus stands and railway stations.
- SoulMan 10y agoPassing a rule is very easy in India as opposed to the enforcement or people following that. However in this case majority of the source are commercial outlets which is relatively less difficult to enforce .
- sfifs 10y agoVarious forms of plastic bans keep getting imposed year after year in different places in India. Nothing practically happens because: a. Police has better things to do than round up people and shops carrying plastic bags. They may probably take a bribe from the shop to turn a blind eye. b. There's no really low cost and convenient alternative in many cases - in spite of a lot of shops in India using recycled newspapers for packaging. Home delivery which is widespread among the richer classes is at least partially helpful since shops bring things in their own bags. However most of India is not rich
- piyushpr134 10y agoI think you are being knowingly stupid here. Bangalore has plastic ban and works very well. It does not apply to people but enforced by BBMP (municipal corporation) on businesses to either not use plastic or to use biodegradeable one. It works very well. I do not come across much plastic here
- helloindia 10y agoDon't know which part of Bangalore you live in. But where I'm right now I still see shops using plastic bags. And I haven't seen Bangalore become any cleaner after the supposed ban.
- amolgupta 10y agoThe ban has limitations on the thickness of the plastic bags used. Garbage bags etc are still allowed.Over the last few months the plastic cups/plates etc have almost disappeared from the city. Himachal has such a ban for over 10 years now and has had really positive effects.
- dpacmittal 10y agoI get plastic bags from shopkeepers in Bangalore all the freaking time. Sometimes I've had to refuse taking the bag and simple carried stuff in my hand.
- Abishek_Muthian 10y agoWhen it comes to banning plastic bags, India takes the lead & not just Delhi; cities like Mumbai, Karwar, Tirumala, Vasco, Rajasthan all have a ban on the bag though enforcement is questionable. Where as rural villages such as 'Mawlynnong' has not only banned the plastic bags but also got the title of 'Asia's cleanest village', there are other such villages in India. It should be commended that, villages which hosts majority of population with lower economic backgrounds are doing their part to protect their environment even when it's much difficult for them to do so than their counterparts in the cities who usually don't need to worry about whether their children get to eat today.
- swatkat 10y agoExactly. Plastic has been banned (and not being used) in various cities in India. A lot of popular tourist places (Hampi, Ooty comes to mind) have 'no plastic bags' policy.
- smb06 10y agoI don't see this being implemented. At least none of the friends and family have reported this is being implemented. Folks from India - anyone have a different feedback and they heard this is really being implemented?
- l3satwik 10y agoLet's just hope that this is implemented in an ordered way. We all remember what happened to Delhi in the last Diwali celebration even after having so much of law against firecrackers.
- gheijfnfd 10y agoBangalore did this 3-4 years back. I had trouble getting disposable bags even in rural KA.
- random16 10y agoThree questions: 1) what will replace plastic for convenience products ( aka single serving consumables )? 2) are there organizations championing this effort elsewhere? 3) where can i read more facts about Delhi's efforts?
- ra2 10y agoIt is also banned in Lucknow, a beautiful city in Indian state Uttar Pradesh.It is a good move.Although govt. should invest more in R&D in order to find environment friendly alternative.Street food sellers who deal in liquid edibles had to raise their prices in order to use current plastic alternatives which are currently clay and glass.