New Delhi ban on plastic bags falls flat

Threat of fine and jail doesn't deter residents, due to poor enforcement
P. Jayaram, Straits Times 4 Apr 09;

NEW DELHI: Nearly three months after India's national capital banned the use, sale and storage of plastic bags, the ubiquitous bags have refused to go away.

In vegetable markets, shops and even shopping malls, traders and customers continue to use plastic bags that experts say harm the environment and choke storm-water drains.

Not surprisingly, the Jan 16 announcement had been received with scepticism in a city whose residents are used to bans being flouted openly.

They say the ban on plastic bags will meet the same fate as so many other 'don'ts' issued by the authorities in the past: 'Don't litter the roads', 'Don't smoke in public', 'Don't use roadsides as toilets'. The list of punishable offences is long but is seldom enforced.

But environmentalists have not lost hope yet.

'The ban was long overdue. A blanket ban was necessary,' said Mr Kushal Yadav, coordinator and campaigner at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based non-governmental organisation.

'It is a good beginning, though 100 per cent compliance would take a long time,' he told The Straits Times.

He said when hill stations like Shimla and Nainital banned plastic bags two years ago, there was scepticism about whether it would be effective. 'Today, you cannot see a plastic bag in these places,' he said.

But he agreed the capital's record of enforcement of such bans has been poor.

The ban on plastic bags covers hotels, large hospitals, restaurants and eateries, liquor shops, markets, shopping centres and fruit and vegetable outlets.

Mr Ravi Kumar Aggarwal, president of the All-India Plastic Industries Association, told The Straits Times the ban is 'sheer madness' and 'foolhardy'.

He claimed plastic bags accounted for only 10 per cent of the solid waste in Delhi and there was no proof that they were responsible for choked drains.

The ban would result in the closure of more than 2,000 plastic bag manufacturing units in the capital and render 10,000 traders and 100,000 workers jobless.

Referring to the maximum penalty of 100,000 rupees (S$3,000) or a five-year prison term for violation of the ban, Mr Aggarwal said this would provide yet another avenue for corruption by law enforcers.

A government panel had, in a report to the Delhi High Court last year, said a complete ban on plastic bags in the city was 'impossible' and suggested setting up recycling units by the manufacturers, on the basis of the 'polluter pays principle', to tackle the problem.