A ban on plastic in the pipeline ?

BANGALORE: Bangalore has started a war on plastic over the past few months by banning use of plastic below 40 microns and mandatory sale of plastic covers. This is a significant move in a city where open drains are regularly used as dumping grounds by residents. However the rules are flouted by hapless shopkeepers who are cajoled, begged and sometimes threatened into providing plastic bags for their customers.“Every one dumps their garbage straight into the drain and they all use plastic bags to store their waste. This blocks the drain and soon the area is stinking,” says Mahesh, a resident of Mathikere. The drain that runs parallel to 13th Main in Mathikere is regularly choked up with huge mounds of plastic.The problems that arise out of drains choked by plastic are many. They block the flow of water and effluents thus posing a health hazard for the people who stay in nearby areas. Choking of drains leads to overflowing of manholes connected to that sewerage line, and choking storm water drains lead to water stagnation during monsoon.“Any other substance found in a drain will dissolve, but not plastic. It remains for many years as plastic is very durable and resistant to degradation,” said Rajasimha, Technical Advisor to the BBMP Commissioner. “Plastic poses great problems at the sewage treatment plant as well since it gets shredded and used as manure thus blocking the percolation of water,” he added discussing a report he received recently.Many states in the country are considering banning plastic entirely and have some form of restriction in place already on the distribution of plastic. Notably the Nilgiris region in Tamil Nadu has implemented a successful ban on the sale of plastic. In Bangalore however, even the restriction on sale has not taken off owing to lack of any sustained campaign. But, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) Chairman A S Sadashivaiah statement at a recent function in Bangalore gives one hope that a ban might soon be in place or at the very least active consideration on such a ban is in place. “We must consider banning plastic entirely as has been done in other states as this could help solve a lot of issues,” he had said.A complete ban however needs to have popular support before it can be implemented successfully in big metropolitan areas like Bangalore.