Chandigarh Bans Plastic-Update 9 (Day 68)
This post is in response and in protest of Chandigarh Administration and its Department of Environment. I will continue to put updates periodically unless the notification to ban plastic bags is either withdrawn by the Administration or is struck down by the courts. It is now my intention to fight the government on this online because I see this as a mega downgrade in my quality of life. All of those who are affected by this ban in any way are requested to use the contact me form (opens in a new window) so that we can formulate strategy to fight this ban. Regular posts will continue on this blog as usual.
What all can you do with a Paper Bag?
The paper bag is now the norm for carrying individual items
So here I am giving that regular update about plastic bag ban in Chandigarh. This week saw an interesting development. You might all have remembered the article appearing in the Times of India where our environment führer Ishwar Singh promised to take more stringent action against handle less plastic bags? Well his department seems to have made some progress this week. Of course the results have been even far less pleasant than I had anticipated. The other day I saw piles of brown paper bags lying at the local grocery store instead of the usual rolls of plastic bags.
So off we started with our shopping expedition and as soon as I inserted a kilo of onions in to the stupid paper bag it gave away. Somehow we managed to stuff everything in to these silly bags and I noticed that the shopping basket stuffed because paper takes so much space. Another problem that I see is squeashy vegetables like Tomatoes which if crushed in a paper bag would produce quite amusing results. Anyway as I have been writing for a while now, we have a government that has committed a blunder by banning convenient, recyclable and an effective plastic bag and is now hell bent on somehow imposing upon us a ban that has produced nothing but misery. It is of course just to satisfy their own bloated egos and nothing to do with the environment whatsoever.
At the end of this particular shopping spree when we finally made to the checkout there was another amusing incident. There were a lot of people standing angrily and there was almost a shouting match in progress between the checkout boys and the customers of the store. Apparently since paper bags happen to be opaque and you can not see what is in the bag, each paper bag needs to be opened by the checkout people to be examined. Also it takes longer to transfer them to carry bags because they tear easily and have to be handled with care. Now of course there is another problem, you need far more carry bags to carry them because again paper occupies more volume than plastic.
When one is finally home one realises the folly of the ban further. Forget about tossing the vegetables and fruit directly in to the fridge now. You will first have to toss tons of paper bags in the garbage. Of course paper bags can never be reused because if they do survive the trip home they are of not much use for storage purposes. Secondly of course you will bring out the good old plastic zip lock bags to store vegetables. So now you end up of course spending more than ever. So what is this ban for except wastage and more wastage. Wastage of trees in the form of paper bags, wastage of time and space, doing away with convenience and a total feeling of exasperation?
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I can really understand ur plight..Why don’t u bring out this whole issue in the open.. with the help of a publication.. or perhaps a consumer grievance forum or something… who knows it might lead to some constructive change..
That’s a torture.. checking the goods we have bought will never be easy with the paper bags.. Is there any continous protests going there, by the people odzer? else I don’t think administrators will know the seriousness of the problem..
Paper bags cannot be reused? Surely not in the same way, but I could think of a few creative ways of reusing paper bags
I shall spare you the dirty details…
Jokes aside. I still say someone should dump a whole lot of leaky food in plastic bags all over the people responsible for this mess…
I know the pain when you have to wait in queue for the checkout guys to check the items you bought. Thankfully no such ban exists in Pune, and reliance fresh happily give away plastic bags
Carry on the fight Odzer!! I am with you( even if I am of no use.)
@ Pooja : Oh my plight! Oh how I suffer! He he he. Anyway the melodrama aside you are right may be the time has come to take this plastic bag thing one step further. I will have to think about it.
@ Kanagu : Its a torture for the checkout people but its equally torturous for everyone else as well. What is most amusing however is that most people do not want to speak up because they are afraid of being perceived as against the environment if they make a fuss.
@ Hedonist : No they can not be reused because most of them do not survive by the time you reach home. The one’s that do survive however can hardly be used as bin bags or for keeping things in the fridge. However I guess you should possibly think of some interesting things to do with them and share them here.
@ Sharad : May be we should take a cue from Pune eh or for that matter the rest of the world! This particular store happened to be a Reliance Fresh and they had just been fined quite a hefty amount by the local administration for giving out inner bags that were made out of plastic. Thanks to our Mr. Ishwar Singh. Keep on reading, you are playing your part perfectly well! Don’t sell yourself short.
Ah well now you’ve asked for it.. of course I don’t mean you should reuse them as containers of any sort… but they ARE made of paper…. and you remember how you used to complain that finding “paper” in certain places in India was so hard, whereas it’s readily available in Bhutan… For that purpose you do not need it to be in tact
sufficiently large pieces will do!
Or: when the weather is chilly, you need to keep warm. And as bums in the West have already figured out, newspaper provides the best insulation, so these paper bags may be an alternative.
Another one; Because the CHD administration loves artsy stuff made of garbage so much, why not paper mache the bags into ugly sculptures and put them in public places. If you want to be really creative with that, you could make giant voodoo dolls of the administrators and poke them with needles.
Combine wet pieces of torn bag with an old sock, and voilà! You can clobber someone on the head with it.
Also, now that the cows are missing their usual portions of plastic bags in their diet; feeding them vegetable trash with paper bag will make for a nice fodder alternative. Maybe this dietary change will make cow dung more manageable, who knows!
As you can see, many useful recycling ideas for the humble paper bag.
@ Hedonist : I had indeed put my trust in the right place and you have come up finally with some proper uses of paper bags. I guess I love the idea of coshing people on the head with something or the other. I also love the idea of the ugly statues, may be Nek Chand can take a clue and create some more monstrosities for public buildings in the city.
Hi,
I have read all your blog posts on the ban of plastic in Chandigarh. I know this is hard to live without plastic bags as we are now “Slaves” of plastic. If I am not wrong polythene was first discovered in end of 19th century and came into usage in mid 20th century. Before that time our grand parents were living without it!
I know some facts will always remain as plastic is widely used in protecting our valuable electronics in case of rain.
See I am using “those bags” you mentioned which are made of some synthetic fiber and you know what? This Rs.10 bag us reusable again and again. The only thing is I have to take it with me which I don’t think is an issue.
I noticed in last some days that there IS NO PLASTIC carry bag in my room and I am happy with this fact. I do not know how people are reacting to the ban but I am loving it.
Somehow I also sometimes feel that there should be certain laws on how to and how not to use plastic bags as I am too scared to take camera our without plastic bag as in Chandigarh you can not rely on weather.
Its good to know that you are concerned about the fact that garbage disposal plant is of no use as it is not being used. I do not understand why this sh*t happened.
Anyway, I hope you do not mind me replying opposing your point on being unfair on plastic ban.
Regards,
Anurag Bhateja
@ Anurag : I am glad you have gone through all of my blog posts. It is not only hard but impossible to live without plastic bags. Basically you are correct it feels like the 19th century. I could not have put it any better. May be we should dispose of all the antibiotics that our grandparents did without and all die of some terrible infection as well. Those bags are not only useful for protecting your electronics in the dreadful monsoon weather we have here but also for other things.
In retrospect though they are just what they are : bags. Bags should be recycled and plastic is ideal for recycling while paper is not. No I do not mind your opposition to my post, you are more than welcome to your views. I would like to touch on one point though like I have done in my previous posts as well. You can not carry bags with you at all times and I have ended up spending hundreds of rupees by now on those stupid bags that are supposed to be recyclable. Impulsive shopping like I said has gone for a toss.
Odzer, I can understand the problems we are facing. See there is huge difference between our thinking. I have read a lot on recycling paper and unfortunately recycling paper is very expensive and bad for environment as companies who are recycling paper, are using very strong chemicals to make that paper white.
Without plastic bags its really hard to live but there is no need to compare antibiotics with plastic bags
.
I feel problem is not with plastic but with the attitude of people. I go regularly on Sukhna in mornings from last 30 days. At 7:00 AM if you go there you will be shocked to see the litter around there. There are 10 people who are cleaning the litter thrown by some as*****s. I asked a guy yesterday who was sweeping there that what time he comes. He said at 6:00 AM. I was like if these people are not there, the only thing we will see there is garbage.
People love to give bread to ducks there. But i do not understand why the F**K the leave the pack on the platform and went away. 5 days back an old stupid lady was going back after throwing empty bread pack there which made so pissed off that I stopped her and asked he to pick it up and throw in dustbin. She looked at me so weirdly in such a manner if she is saying “It is not my cup of tea”. But she might be scared to see my size (hehe) she picked it up and went away.
The only thing what I want is those who do not know how to keep your surrounding clean, should not be given right to use plastic bags.
@ Anurag : I agree people can be quite terrible. The problem of litter though will not be solved by banning plastic bags at all. If you think about the Chinese. Another country that has people with some rather nasty habits they were about to bring an attitude change to some extent. It should start in schools but it should also start in neighbourhoods. I am ready to give a day cleaning up my surroundings in a month. We have enough people in this city to solve the litter problem if we want to. Why does not the government making cleaning up a priority, recycling a priority and managing garbage more effectively a priority? Instead they took a nasty short cut. They could have made the residents join in the cleaning? However you know what…..that would not have been popular. Banning plastic appeals to the top ‘educated’ and middle class layer of this city. Who do not even know the complete facts of this ban. Now as you mentioned about paper bags, imagine the results if every Indian city started using just paper bags. The young virgin forests will just disappear in to thin air in an year or so. However I am very glad I finally have some other local person on my blog, welcome.
I went to lake for some photography this evening. It was terrible. Litter from start to end. People were just like throwing every single piece of s**t they have!!! I even spoke loudly t my friend when one sick young couple were throwing popcorn pack near stairs “Bro yeh baat nahin samjh aati ki log lake saaf kyun nahin rakhna chahte”. They looked at me… guy said something to girl… they both laughed on me and my friend for such a “Stupid” advice to them and moved!!! Now I was like “shoot them”!!!!
@ Anurag : What you should have done is picked up their litter and put it in a dust bin, smiled at them and said “See it is really quite easy, if I can do it you can do it as well”.