The various plastics manufacturer's organisations put up a Full page Ad on the Economic Times today against the ban of Plastics polybags.
They are crying foul because the Maharastra government have made them a
scapegoat, because the recent Floods might have been caused sewage blockage caused by solid waste.
They claim only 1% solid waste is plastics, and it was not plastics that caused the floods but the other 99%. Could
be true.
Been a long time I have voiced my views. Lack of time, targets,
corporate etc etc. Well today I am bit tired after reading all the work
related documents.. I will let my mind wander to plastics..
I am sure they are right when they said that only 1% solid waste is
plastics. And why not, plastic is so thin, if you presses them into a
ball, the poly bag you used to carry 2-3 kilos of your grocery will be
hardly the size of a peanut.
The plastic manufacturers cried that its just a matter of 1% and the
sewage was clogged by the other 99%.
Oh! how I hate percentages.
They didn't mentioned that most of the 99% might be degradable, so it is more
likely that the 1% waste have been staying for a long time and will add
up to the next years sewage worth of 1% while parts of the other 99%
might have been scavenged by ragpickers-animals-bacteria and other
microbes in the same pecking order.
The consortium said that, plastics makes life much easier, so much
more convinient.
Very true, I agree, why else would I use it despite having learnt in School and reading many a times that Plastics is
Non-Biodegradable and once manufactured remains on the earth surface for a few
generations.
They also said that they are preserving the forest by providing with
a substitute for forest products. They will preserve the forest till
the land is so full of plastics, the forest will suffocate to grow trees.
There are bamboo plantations in many parts of the country which are
burnt to make way for new crops because the bamboo could not be harvested
for lack of demand, logistics being another problem.
Do I see the making of a lobby, not unlike the Tobacco lobby of the
USA, in the consortium.
Yes plastics might have constituted only 1% solid waste, but it can
hold solid waste many times its size.
It would surprise me that 30-40%
(just a number, this is not a researched figure) of the 99% solid waste
are not held together by plastics.
A small polybag which might be less
than a gram or a little more have many a times clogged my bathroom
drainage. 1% of solid waste is a huge number, not forgetting the fact that
the othet 99% might mostly be easily degradable waste.
Throw your leftover of of dals and vegetable and rice tied in a polybag and the polybag
would be much less than 1% of the whole assemblage.
Like I said my
views.. It is not a well researched write. I just plucked it off my Blog.
I don't know if we still use polybags in Manipur, but I do remember
that it was once banned.
I hope we are ahead of the rest of the country
in such things.
* Anthony Tongbram, an MBA graduate from Symbiosis,Pune contributes to e-pao.net regularly.
He can be contacted at [email protected]
This article was webcasted on Sept 02nd 2005
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