Farce of a ban on single use plastic : Fix a price on carry bags
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 30, 2025 -

The ban on single use plastic officially came into force from April 15.

Fast forward to April 29 and there is nothing much to show that anything of substance has been taken up at the ground level.

And in line with the grand announcement that the ban has come into effect, the Government, read officials of the Manipur Pollution Control Board, Directorate of Environment and Climate Change and personnel of City police launched a drive against the banned substance and even penalised at least three shops for selling single use plastic.

This was on April 16 and no one seems to know what has happened to the grand announcement of the Government.

Plastic carry bags continue to be used freely with the people more than ready to use it for their day's shopping.

It is not so much a case of the people not adhering to the call of the Government but rather a case of the Government miserably failing to look beyond the oft repeated bans and more bans on single use plastic.

In the tepid response of the people to the plastic free call is writ large the utter failure of the Government to look beyond the obvious and explore ways to dissuade the people from opting for the plastic carry bags.

It is a given the plastic carry bags are extremely convenient.

It is not soggy when dressed fish or dressed meat such as chicken, pork are packed in the plastic carry bag.

Ngari can easily be packed and carried in the plastic carry bag before they are put into air tight containers at home.

Plastic carry bags are also extremely convenient to carry grocery items such as a kilo or two of dal, sugar, potato, tomato, name it and plastic carry bag is the thing to carry these items.

The jute bags, cloth bags which shoppers used to take everytime they stepped out to do the day's shopping, the che-khaos are stuffs that would no longer ring a bell to many of the youngsters today and the Government will have to acknowledge the extreme convenience that plastic carry bags offer to the people as well as the lack of any practical substitutes and think out of the box to see how best to control the rampant use of single use plastic.

In the first place, it should be acknowledged that a complete ban on single use plastic is not practical and this is where the Government will need to look for ways to control its usage.

In the first place, impose hefty fines on anyone found littering the place with domestic wastes wrapped in plastic carry bags.

Make garbage collection more efficient and the Government may also seriously study the possibility of hiking the garbage collection fees from each household and increase the frequency of the garbage collection.

The once or twice a week round does not exactly go with the need of the time, when a single household can generate so much waste per day.

And it is when the garbage is not collected regularly that people tend to throw the garbage wrapped in plastics in the khongbans and the roadsides.

Ban from April 15 and this is not the first time that such a step has been taken up.

And the reality says that the ban from April 15 announcement has remained just that, an announcement with nothing to show that this has had any impact on the reality here.

It was in line with the Manipur Plastic Policy, 2022 that the Government banned the use of all single use plastic including water bottles below one litre capacity.

That the announcement of the Government did not last long is there for all to see for half litre packaged water bottles are literally flooding the market today.

Half litre water bottle is there at every community feasts and plastic cups, spoons and plates are there at every function.

The point is, the Government should acknowledge that it needs to look beyond just announcing bans after bans and see what would be workable.

Apart from taking up steps to encourage the use of cloth and jute bags, the Government should also think of ways to discourage people from going in for plastic carry bags.

As the first step, the Government may seriously study the possibility of putting a steep price on each plastic carry bag.

Get shoppers to purchase the plastic carry bags instead of getting it for free from the shopkeeper as it is at the moment.

For example, for each plastic carry bag that a shopper may demand while buying things, charge her Rs 50 more for each such bag.

The price should act as the deterrent.

Try it, at least at the State level.