The State government’s move to ban plastic in Panaji, Margao and Mapusa may be well-intentioned but it is bordering on being very impractical. The fact is how ever much ver we don’t like it, plastic has become an extremely integral part of our lives in the last 20-30 years. A generation before, shoppers would go to market with cloth bags, which have become more or less extinct.
The flood of plastic was propagated both by people and manufacturers. Consider tiny shampoo sachets, for instance. The success of this product showed that manufacturers of packaged goods who put a plastic cover and priced products under Rs 5 would be a huge hit in India. Plastic was so successful that even bigger pack sizes like 100 ml or 200 ml started coming only in plastic packaging as economics dictated that both metal and glass packaging was too expensive.
Over the last 2-3 decades, consumers shunned the good old cloth or paper bags and fell head over heels in love with plastic bags. Often you would see shoppers arguing with shopkeepers if not given a plastic bag. Things has changed so much that it is going to be very difficult to suddenly remove plastic from lives.
The notion that paper is not polluting is totally incorrect. To manufacture paper bags, we have to cut trees, which is environmentally damaging. Plastic, on the other hand, can be recycled. The need of the hour is to educate people that plastic can be recycled. Perhaps, a good idea is to have plastic collection centres, where every household can regularly give away most of its plastic waste.
Another very important question is: Do we have adequate number of paper bag, cloth bag or jute bag manufacturers in Goa, who can suddenly fill up the gap left by the ban on plastic bags?
Steps are being taken even in Australia to ban plastic bags. But, over there, they have sufficient number of companies making cloth bags at a price as low as 50 cents. The question is: Is it possible for companies to make cloth bags equally affordable to consumers in India? Even if efforts are made in this direction, a positive change will not happen overnight.
The most important thing is changing the mindset of consumers. Consumers will remain in the grip of plastic as long as companies like HLL, P&G, ITC and many others continue providing products to them in plastic packaging. How can the consumer’s mindset be changed, then?
Having said that, the State government’s efforts do need some praise as well. It will be a great feat if the government manages to reduce the prevalence of plastic by a huge margin. But, for that to happen, lot of factors will need to change.
