By Jayeesha Taneja
SHILLONG, June 15: The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) announced a ban on single-use plastic (SUP) products to be implemented country-wide from July 1. The products that shall be banned include decorative thermocol, cups, glasses, flags, ear buds, candy and ice-cream sticks, PVC banners under 100 microns thickness, wrapping films, stirrers, and cutlery.
While the noble cause was taken up to reduce the massive amounts of pollution in the creation and disposal of plastics, there is a lot more to the ban. The implementation will begin next month, but to what extent it will be followed, is a critical question awaiting equally critical responses.
Parle Agro called this a “hasty ban” and Amul is still rooting for the authorities to delay the ban because “all our childhood memories of Frooti, Lassi and milkshakes come with single-use straws, which need to be gotten away with to relieve our choking rivers”.
The Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board along with the Shillong Municipal Board, the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council and the Hima Mylliem has spread awareness on the ban in Iewduh. While the DC’s office informed that the second round of sensitisation was held and almost 50% of the vendors in Iewduh have stopped dealing in single-use plastic, the problem still lies in the very foundation of the markets and in smaller vendors of vegetables, fruits, spices, meats, and daily groceries.
Even a cursory visit to Shillong’s favourite and most traditional market – Iewduh, will tell you that even after the two rounds of sensitisation from the authorities, wholesale sellers and smaller vendors remain clueless about the way forward.
In the words of Yakin, a wholesale shop owner, “the public wants plastic”. When sellers say that they won’t provide a plastic bag to carry groceries, customers go away and eventually it leaves the shopkeepers with no other option that to keep SUPs.
Dinesh Kumar, owner of a wholesale shop, says, “People want sugar, atta, dried chillies and things like these. They cannot be packed in paper bags. Instead, when you pack anything in paper, they will always ask for an extra poly bag so that it doesn’t spill. While I do think eliminating plastics that end up polluting our environment is the need of the hour, plastic has become a very integral part of our everyday life.”
He argues that even though chips packets and Parle-G biscuit packages are SUPs, they won’t be going away anytime soon, because the market follows consumer demands more than official orders. At the end of the day everyone is looking to make a little extra for their pockets.
Pankaj, another wholesale shop owner says that even though there is no significant effect on his business, because he doesn’t use single-use plastics by choice, but almost everything sold in his shop comes packaged in plastics that certainly need to be written off. When asked about the possible alternatives to these SUPs, he says “I do believe that the world is a much better place without plastic, do I think we can find a long-term, sustainable alternative that will make everyone happy- producer, seller and consumer? I doubt it.”
Considering the 3.5 million tonnes of plastic waste the country produces in a year, the step toward reducing the numbers is a noble step, but the implementation of the ban and finding alternatives to SUPs is something that requires practical and sustainable solutions.
Mehboob Hossain, who was seen buying fish, gives a critical explanation of how this ban is not sustainable in a place especially like Shillong. “A customer who comes to the market with an intention of shopping will get their bags from home, but those who make spontaneous purchases expect to get a poly bag from the shop itself. You’ll barely see anyone giving their customer jute or a thick paper bag to carry their grains and veggies. And when the consumer is not given an option to carry the groceries home, he will look for another alternative. Wouldn’t this negatively impact sales of someone who’s advocating the environment’s benefit?” Hossain wondered.
What needs to be understood is that problems need to be uprooted from their very roots, cutting its stems wouldn’t serve a long-term solution, and the problem will eventually creep back. So, while banning single-use plastics is a great initiative, its application of it in the real world, in the last layer of the market seems like a distant dream. Without cheap and affordable alternatives, the sellers will resort back to single-use plastics.
Yes, newspaper, jute bags, and cloth bags remain a very viable option, but for cities like Shillong which approximately receives 900mm of rainfall a year, paper is the least durable option. In the end, the baton lies in the hands of the consumers and their decisions towards taking this venture forwards effectively. The alternatives need to come at subsidised rates which wholesale shop owners and smaller vendors can access and afford.
These alternatives can come from the government, from the private sector, or become a part of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), provided that they all follow a uniform price range that is sustainable for everyone, if not the use of such plastic products will continue without any guilt. There is a need to tackle the problem of plastic wastage urgently, but the way forward should be paved with clearer goals and accessible public machinery that does not leave the common man helpless.