Plastic ban: Paper bags back in markets

PATNA: Thanks to the state government’s move to ban polythene carry bags anytime this month, thongas (paper bags) of different shapes and sizes have resurfaced in the city markets after a gap of nearly four decades. Most general stores and vegetable vendors have already started keeping thongas and discouraging the use of polythene ba
gs.Bihar State Pollution Control Board (BSPCB) chairman Ashok Kumar Ghosh told this newspaper on Sunday that the state government is to ban polythene in both urban and rural areas.Earlier, the government had planned plastic ban in urban areas only, but on the Patna high court’s directive, a draft for ban in rural areas has also been prepared. Besides, a draft for penalty for violators is also ready. Both these drafts would be placed before the high court on Monday and if it is okayed, the same would be placed before the cabinet for its approval, Ghosh said.
Old-timers recall that up to 1970s, kirana shops would put tea, flour, masala powders and other commodities into paper bags fashioned out of old newspapers. Moreover, people also used to visit the markets with their own bags made of cloth and jute. But, the advent of polythene carry bags gradually eliminated the use of cloth or jute bags and people made it a habit to go to the markets without any carry bag. Even commodities weighing 10 to 15kg were easily packed in polythene bags, said Ram Nandan Prasad, a retired government servant of Chiraiyatand locality.
The people then hardly visualized the worldwide menace likely to be caused by the rampant use of polythene and plastic in our daily lives. The indiscriminate use of undegradable plastic bottles and polythene carry bags has endangered the very survival of all living creatures and, hence, its use is being banned all over the world. Several states, including neighbouring Jharkhand, have already banned it and steps are underway to ban its use in Bihar, too.
Talking about the alternative to polythene bags for small vendors and shopkeepers, Ghosh said the BSPCB is propagating the use of bags made of cloth, jute and even biodegradable polythene as alternatives. They may be a bit costlier, but they are eco-friendly. Moreover, the use of jute bags may be popularized in Bihar which is rich in its cultivation. This will greatly benefit the jute growers as well as the entrepreneurs engaged in manufacturing bags, said Ghosh.
However, some environmentalists expressed concern over the use of paper bags. They maintain that it takes four times as much energy to manufacture a paper bag, as compared to plastic, and the raw materials have to come from trees, a natural resource that is otherwise carbon-fixing. Making paper bags not only adds waste to the world, it kills one of our greatest tools for fighting pollution. Paper bags generate 70% more air pollutants than plastic and they generate 50 times more water pollutants, they said.
The best thing would be to carry our own bags made of cloth or jute for shopping for keeping our environment safe and clean, they added.