Fighting Plastic Pollution in Mumbai

On March 23, 2018, the Maharashtra government imposed a statewide ban on the use of plastics. Just about three months later, Mumbai became the first city to implement the ban on manufacturing and sale of plastic bags. Recently, the city of Mumbai is witnessing the comeback of this toxic product despite of taking all the necessary measures.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), formed a Blue Squad of 250 inspectors who were assigned to make surprise visits to shops and if found as an offender then impose a fine of ranging from Rs. 5000 to Rs. 25,000 and sometimes even a three-month jail sentence. Despite of taking such strict measures that could badly affect the regular business, plastic bags are back into circulation.

A famous Idli seller popularly called as Anna, starts selling breakfast from 7am on 24th road, Bandra West. Everyone from the school going kids to the auto drivers to people working in the offices nearby would crowd around him for a quick and fulfilling first meal. Few months ago, he would refuse his customers to provide them with parcels, as he didn’t have the plastic bags or its alternative option to give the food in. But since the past two months, him and his wife would slyly pull out the bags from underneath their bicycle and happily serve the customers with their orders. On asking him about his view on the ban, he says “We initially followed it, but faced a major loss in business. The alternative options are expensive for a hawker like me.” Now, he does it without fear and the excuse or the reasonable explanation according to him is that business is everything.

Many hawkers blamed their customers as well. The vegetable market on the Pali Hill Market, Bandra West, is filled with fruits and vegetable sellers who have lined up on one side of the road. They say that their buyers don’t come with the alternate options and they refuse to buy absolutely anything at all which directly drops their sale. So, they finally went against the ban and started using the plastic bags again.

Samita Singh (35), a workingwoman residing on 10th Road, Khar West, says, “People like me who have a 9am-5pm job, make impromptu grocery purchases on their way back home. We are coming back from the office so we don’t always the extra bags with us and demand it from the vendors. I carry cloth bags when I’m specifically stepping out of the house to buy certain things but it is not always planned. The plastic ban was a good initiative but implementing it is not so easy.

A street food vendor on Linking Road, Bandra, says that sometimes people have to take back a huge order back home and obviously they aren’t going to come with the required containers with them so we provide them with the plastic bags to carry the food, we don’t want to lose out on money and if we get caught then we would pay the fine and come back out and do the business.”

With such an audacious attitude, how will the ban ever be implemented? The popular verdict after talking to people on the street is that that the ban is good and was effective till a certain period of time. Vendors claim to give the plastic bags only to the people who demand it and see it as a justifiable means of doing business. Some buyers are still unaware of the alternate options to plastic bags and some are strictly following it and say that if the government doesn’t want us to use them, why are they still getting manufactured?

This clearly means that unbending actions needs to be taken the manufacturers and curb the problem from its roots.

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