Returns plunge, ragpickers shun plastic, leave it for LMC

LUCKNOW: Polythene disposed by residents on roads and dumping grounds to comply with the ban on single-use plastic is leading to heaps of carry bags piling up on roads across the city.
Even ragpickers are unwilling to pick polythene bags from garbage because of their lower return after the plastic ban.
A ragpicker in Daliganj, Indresh Kumar, said, “The volume of polythene bags found in trash has increased almost three-fold over the past one week.Unlike earlier, they are of no use to us now because of the lower return. Earlier, we used to get Rs 30 for every kilogram of polythene, today we are getting just half of the amount. So, we have now stopped collecting polythene. Let it now be Lucknow Municpal Corporation’s (LMC) responsibility.”
On the other hand, LMC’s waste management company Eco-Green has been unable to find a permanent solution to the problem of large quantities of polythene being thrown on roads till now. As a result, instead of ending up at waste treatment plants these plastic bags are now seen disposed carelessly on roads and crossings. Eco-Green’s contractor for picking up garbage, Ankit Maurya, said, “The heaps of trash at the dumping site in Kaiserbagh are growing bigger every day because rag pickers have refused to collect the banned polythene bags.”
Even wholesalers are having a tough time getting rid of the accumulated polythene in the city. A wholesaler in Kaiserbagh, Vineet Gupta, said, “Earlier, 80% of the polythene collected from garbage used to be recycled every day. Today, the percentage has dropped to just 30% which explains the huge piles of polythene lying on roads.”
Many consumers are also afraid that the government might ban polythene bags which are thicker than 50 micron and are disposing even those carry bags which comply with the rules.
A resident of Aashiana, Ram Manohar, said that apart from consumers, small shopkeepers and street vendors who have escaped from the eyes of LMC are openly dumping waste on roads.
(With inputs from Pranchal Srivastava, Triya Gulati and Aparnika Srivastava)