#NoToPlastic: Why Relax Norms When City Accepted Change Positively?

 

Pune city for once responded favourably to the plastic ban and despite the short-term hurdles, citizens actually did shift to alternatives. Almost every shop witnessed several customers walking in equipped with a cloth bag for their shopping.

However the Government, presumably bowing to pressure decided to relax norms and allow bags of 50 microns and more.

Pune365 decide to hit the streets and speak tocitizens, shopkeepers, and activists to get a sense of the mood. 

The plastic ban is certainly losing its effectiveness, as usual, the government started something with full force and diffused it, says Hitesh Waigankar, Active Citizen.

They created the ban and implemented it effectively, and then revoked their decision allowing various categories of plastic products. The government should be firm with their rules and if they cant provide better alternatives they should not enforce such bans.

Law made by the government should be implemented the way it is formed, but it seems the government just decides unilaterally. We have daily announcements of changes in the banned list which is not only creating confusion, but also lowering the effectiveness of the ban.

Thousands of people are still trying to figure out, what is allowed and what is banned.

When the government was aware that there is no alternative for packaging of many goods, how fair was it to declare a blanket ban on plastic.

It makes us question the acumen of those who passed judgement on such issues. Hitesh added.

Ravi Jashnani, President of the Maharashtra Plastic Manufacturers Association, says The recent decision by the state government to exempt the plastic bags of 50 microns has affected the effectiveness of ban on plastic which was implemented.

There has been constant change in the decisions from the government, they should implement the rule properly or else everyone is going to start using them again and it will be a repeat of the 2006 failed ban. 

A grocery store owner Sharad says, “Government is very unpredictable and unsure about the decision they make. Initially, they implemented a ban on everything, later they simplify on what to use and not, not , now they have allowed plastic bags with 50 microns.”

With these moves, the ban is losing its significance as no common man will differentiate between what is under 50micron and above it.

After the ban, consumers started getting their own bags to the shops and there was no need to revise the decision.

Now, people will start using plastic freely and the government will not be equipped to keep an eye on the micron thickness of each bag used. 

As a shopkeeper, I will order the bags as per the norms, but am very sure about this turning out to be a failed attempt, because of the constant changes in decision implemented, Sharad added.

Vaibhav Kadam, techie says, I think plastic was never the problem, the problem was the carelessness about handling the plastic.

The matter of real concern is when it is not recycled and reused.

If using plastic is allowed again, nobody cares about how many microns it contains. For instance, there was a change seen in the people because of effective drives by the government. However, the changing decisions on plastic banned has set people free to use plastic again.

Ramesh, a juice vendor says, I have suffered a huge loss due to the ban, as parceling the juice was impossible as there was no alternative.

The recent decision of using plastic bags with 50 micron is going to be beneficial to me.

I have now got these bags, but I see no difference in the bag, plastic is plastic whatever you use and its going to harm the environment, Ramesh added.

 

~~

#All views expressed in this article are those of the individual respondents and Pune365 does not necessarily subscribe to them.