odzer's blog

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 I will continue to put updates periodically unless the notification to ban plastic bags is either withdrawn by the Administration or is struck down by the courts.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?

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.

Are they blind to the obvious : The Answer is YES!

The Times of India Article Published on 25th of Nov, 2008

On the 25th of this month I found this article in the local supplement of the Times of India. It makes for an interesting read. It echoes what I have been writing about in this blog for a long time now. However I am amazed that instead of realizing the folly of this ban the local government is quite intent on seeing this ban implemented even more aggressively. Now they are actively intent on threatening people carrying plastic bags with trials. I have a question for them though. How will they be able to tell if the bag that the person is carrying is from before the ban? What about visitors from other cities? Isn’t it taking environmental fanaticism to a new high?

Now about handleless plastic bags that I have talked about in a previous post of mine. These are the only things we have now to carry leaky food. So perhaps a sweet shop owner needs such bags to perhaps sell Rasgullas or Gulab Jamuns. Perhaps a meat shop owner uses such a bag to sell his products. So on and so forth. The Administration seems to be blind to the concerns of everyday life. They have branded plastic is an evil and that is the end of it. People can all go to hell collectively. If you do not obey you can pay a hefty fine of hundreds of thousands of rupees or be jailed.

Coming now to Mr. Ishwar Singh, the Führer of the Chandigarh Environment Department, a person who I wrote to and who did not even bother replying and is now busy holding meetings with the high and the mighty of the government ‘apprising’ them of tactics used by the poor shopkeepers here I can only say I am appaled. Does he not even realise that he is representing a totalitarian government who does not even listen to the voice of reason? In any case who gave these bureaucrats a license to run our lives for us and choose for us how we want to live our lives. I say to you sir, Resign. You are not wanted. You have failed in the discharge of your responsibilities and you give two hoots to the people who live within your departments jurisdiction. You even refuse to read your emails  what can we expect from you in terms of governance.

I am demanding now an outright lifting of this draconian ban. As a person who has to put up with this nonsense every day I am saying enough is enough. I want our local government to focus on more serious problems instead of white washing our huge garbage problems. Of course I am not naïve enough to think that just by writing a blog post things will change immediately. I am in for the long haul over this. The only question is, is the government as well? They are already failing with their ban. Lets see.

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.

Enter the recyclable bag!

Another packaging disaster, you see a regular handleless plastic bag with a paper bag inside which contains walnuts. Imagine the waste! Previously it would be just a plastic bag! Just behind you see the new expensive recyclable

How much are you willing to pay for a shopping bag? I am willing to pay nothing. Like all good things in life a shopping bag should come free. Why? Well the reason is simple enough. Shopping for a lot of people is a very impulsive activity and you have no idea what you will end up buying. So you basically should get a bag to carry your things home. Ever since our stupid government decided to ban plastic bags we have had strange issues. In the first weeks of this ban we had no bags at all to carry produce. In the second week we got plastic bags back but without any handles. Finally around the third week we finally saw some wonderful recyclable bags. What are these bags? How much do they cost? Are they available everywhere?

Well it seems at first sight that these bags are made out of some sort of synthetic fiber. As far as I remember my chemistry synthetic fibers do not biodegrade. So basically they are just fancier plastic bags. Secondly they cost an arm and a leg. You can expect to pay anywhere between Rupees 5 to 20 per bag at different stores. Actually at most stores they cost well above Rupees 10 per bag. So if you buy groceries for a week just keep Rs 40 or almost 1 US$ for shopping bags. Now lets just do the math, if we were to use these bags as conveniently as we used plastic bags :

40X4 = Rs. 120 per month
120X12= Rs. 1440 per year

Now I have assumed that it costs Rs. 10 per bag. Of course it might cost more or it might cost less. It may also be that you decide that you may carry one of these bags with you to prevent paying for them each time. However I can not imagine anyone carrying half a dozen ‘recyclable’ bags with them each time. I can’t even seem to remember to carry one and basically whenever you need a bag you do not have one. Rs. 1440 per year may not seem much but trust me it can buy you a lot in India, actually that might be around one and half weeks of groceries for a small family. So how much does it really cost the store owners? I can imagine a lot because these bags are only available at the higher end stores. Regular shop keepers and shop keepers that use push carts usually are now using handle less plastic bags to sell their wares. Some use paper bags. So basically the ban has led us no where and it is a complete and utter failure.

The availability of these so called recyclable bags is as good as being not available. So how is the world coping? The other day I went to a sports shop to buy some weights. It was a completely impulsive stop because I needed some lighter weights for the bar bell I own and I was just reminded of it when I saw the store. The guy gave me 2 Kg weights in a paper bag! He then advised me to be “careful” and told me that it will “tear”. The look on the store owners face was one of misery. Most people seem to be deeply unhappy with the government here and the problem is that we can not even get rid of this government. So all we can do is use mediums like these to express our unhappiness.

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.

City Beautiful? Who are they kidding!!!!!

I must warn you that this is going to be a long post. I promised last week that I would be writing something about garbage ‘management’ in my city and well to be honest also to a large extent about this country. No one will dispute that India is a dirty and a filthy place. As a lot of countries it has its good sides and its bad sides but the piles of stinking garbage lying around in the open in our cities is definitely is a great put off. This week the Indian flag landed on the moon and we have made great progress in many fields over the last couple of decades. However we havent been able to solve the litter lining our streets in the 5000 years of our civilizations glorious existance. Now do not get me wrong I probably live in one of the cleanest of Indian cities if not the THE cleanest city. However it is not difficult to see how little effort they put in to managing the garbage. I am not going to oversimplify the problem a large part of the problem is the people themselves. The way they litter the cities is just dreadful. No one bothers to use the bins and people just throw their refuse anywhere they see. As for household trash no one separates their garbage here. Plastic, household kitchen waste, toxic waste all go in this one giant trash can which is usually not lined with any plastic bags. So you have really disgusting stinking and smelly trash cans. What really makes it worse is that people who deal with the trash or the bin men usually work without any equipment to handle the trash properly. The country that is planning to send men to the moon does not even provide its municipal workers with gloves or overalls! Does not matter if they die of diseases like hepatitis or cholera.

So how is the city that has banned plastic bags changed the way it manages garbage to protect the environment. The answer is that it has not. Instead of putting in money to educate people how  to dispose of trash properly or training staff they have taken this so called ban as be it and end it of the situation. When you have fixed basic sanitation you can have higher aims and do something about the environment etc but if you can not even manage the garbage and lets honestly ask ourselves is that not a municipal and local governments number one job you have no right to tell people about the virtues of using or not using a particular type of carry bag! The government is simply getting away by pulling off a publicity stunt while the people ignore the stink of the reality.  As you can see from the images in the gallery above the lies and untruths of our administration stink to high heavens. Shame on you Chandigarh Administration and Municipal Corporation, you are exposed for your incompetence. In fact all of these photos were taken in central Chandigarh! I can not even imagine what the condition must be in outer areas. I am reminded of a poem I once recited when I was a kid at school. I am posting it below :-

SARAH CYNTHIA SYLVIA STOUT
by Shel Silverstein

Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would not take the garbage out.
She’d wash the dishes and scrub the pans
Cook the yams and spice the hams,
And though her parents would scream and shout,
She simply would not take the garbage out.
And so it piled up to the ceiling:
Coffee grounds, potato peelings,
Brown bananas and rotten peas,
Chunks of sour cottage cheese.
It filled the can, it covered the floor,
It cracked the windows and blocked the door,
With bacon rinds and chicken bones,
Drippy ends of ice cream cones,
Prune pits, peach pits, orange peels,
Gloppy glumps of cold oatmeal,
Pizza crusts and withered greens,
Soggy beans, and tangerines,
Crusts of black-burned buttered toast,
Grisly bits of beefy roast.
The garbage rolled on down the halls,
It raised the roof, it broke the walls,
I mean, greasy napkins, cookie crumbs,
Blobs of gooey bubble gum,
Cellophane from old bologna,
Rubbery, blubbery macaroni,
Peanut butter, caked and dry,
Curdled milk, and crusts of pie,
Rotting melons, dried-up mustard,
Eggshells mixed with lemon custard,
Cold French fries and rancid meat,
Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat.
At last the garbage reached so high
That finally it touched the sky,
And none of her friends would come to play,
And all of her neighbors moved away;
And finally, Sarah Cynthia Stout
Said, “Okay, I’ll take the garbage out!”
But then, of course it was too late,
The garbage reached across the state,
From New York to the Golden Gate;
And there in the garbage she did hate
Poor Sarah met an awful fate
That I cannot right now relate
Because the hour is much too late
But children, remember Sarah Stout,
And always take the garbage out.

So all in all one thing that is pretty clear is that someone or the other is not doing their job as it should be done. The garbage pile reeks of incompetence. Now if the people who have banned plastic bags wake up from their dreamy slumber and confront the real problem? The problem of our filthy ways? If we just threw the trash in a proper manner surely we can even manage plastic bags? As a parting note though I would like to say something else. Garbage disposal is not free in Chandigarh, we have to pay bin men every 3 months although the amount we pay is a pittance around 120 INR or US$ 2.46 at today’s exchange rate. This money does not go to them but the local association that manages the area where you live. I had a chance to have a brief interview with my trash guy this week and I asked him some questions. He informs me that after they have picked the garbage from homes they seperate the garbage with their bare hands and pick out all the things that they can sell like cardboard etc. Previously they would also have the ragpickers take out the plastic bags which they can not do anymore. Most of Chandigarh’s poorest of the poor have been also deprived of their one source of living. I think it is time that environment enthusiasts wake up and take stock of some real problems instead of making new ones.

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.

Why won’t the government recycle?

This is an interesting question for me. Every day we use plastic whether you live in a part of this country where plastic is banned or not. PET bottles for water, soft drinks, juice etc, those leaky plastic pouches that you get in this country for oil and milk, packaged products like cheese, tubs of margarine etc etc. I am sure whenever you go shopping something or the other is packaged in plastic. Plastic can be recycled and used again. In fact that is the whole point of using such containers. If you can recycle plastic containers you can also recycle plastic bags? So now the question is why is the administration in Chandigarh not recycling plastic?

Verka may well be one of the biggest users of plastic pouches because they are responsible for most of the supply of milk in this city and its surroundings. Since they are owned by the government they can get away with supplying milk in plastic bags while the rest are forced to carry dorky bags or deal with torn paper bags. So is it then not a case of simple double standards? Why do they not force bigwigs and government owned companies to stop the use of plastic? Simple because they realise that this is the BEST material for packaging and distribution. It also by the way happens to be the best matrial for carry bags. Now that it is clear that handless plastic bags have crept back in to the markets why not simply allow handles?

So what can be a solution to litter? I am going to do a post on that later on and talk about how garbage is managed and what can be done to make better arrangements. I can assure you that there is a lot lacking on that front and both the Municipal corporation of this city and the local administration have not taken a single step towards waste segregation or more inculcating  better garbage segregation habits among the populace of this city. They simply went ahead and put a blanket ban! Oh and I should inform the readers of this blog that the courts have not been reaonsable either. It seems that everyone just want to be ‘popular’ while not considering some obvious factors when it comes to this issue.

What are the results of this ban so far? We have inferior quality plastic to deal with now. We have a huge deal of inconvenience due to the fact that we can not shop impulsively and we are now using far more paper than we used to do. So let me talk a bit about paper bags today.

• Paper is the number one item found in landfills according to the US Environment Protection Agency
• Paper bags are not reusable.
• Paper bags are badly made and they tear easily.
• Plastic bags recycled as well as fresh can be made sterile. Paper bags may be germ infested.
• It takes years to manufacture paper bags, it takes trees and it takes a lot of them! It also takes chemicals like bleach and energy to produce them. Environment friendly huh.
• Recycling paper needs usage of chemicals like hydrogen peroxide, sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide and of course bleach again plus more wood because paper can not be 100% recycled. Plastic recycling is far kinder on the earth and far more easier! In fact again according to the US EPA it only takes around 2/3rd of energy to recycle plastic than to manufacture new virgin plastic.
• Paper bag manufacturing process usually uses younger trees because older trees are unsuitable for making wood pulp. This means unscrupulous lumber companies will actually give no chance for recovering forests. Considering the world is already suffering massive deforestation it may be something to consider.

All in all paper is not the solution for this city or another. The only way out of this mess is if we recycle plastic. If the government will not recycle we must ask them why not? Again if they can recycle some plastic they can recycle all!

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.

A corrupt and inefficient administration can only make inefficient laws.

What is the quality of your government? It is a question that people often do not ask themselves. What exactly do you get in return for your tax rupee? If you are going to pay for the entire show, should you accept poor service from the government? Government is not funded by some magic fund, it extracts its pound of flesh. If it then passes laws that are basically inefficient the working of such administration requires greater scrutiny. I am a busy man and I have had no time yet to to ask the administration of chandigarh any direct questions.  I am pondering about doing that later and the fact that my previous questions are still unanswered by the Department of Environment of Chandigarh Administration does not motivate me to demand answers from them directly at the moment. So I used the tools available to me and found some answers on my own.

1. Why did my letter to the department of environment go unanswered?

Answer: Most likely because they have no system in place to answer questions of their constituents or the people they rule through e-mail. Apparently the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh has spent thousands if not hundreds of thousands on computers, laptops, information technology equipment but has nothing in place to answer e-mails. This was made apparent by a news story I found here.

2. How serious is the Chandigarh Administration  and Municipal Corporation when it comes to planning and execution of various projects? What is their general track record?

   300 Million Rupee Garbage Processing Plant : Doomed from Day 1. This project is basically non functional. The municipal government is responsible for its working. Just to make that clear. The Tribune story on that can be found here.

   Mechanical Sweeping Machines : Purchased for 30 Million Rupees these parking lot cleaning machines are supposed to clean our roads. These were supposed to be used at night time when there is no traffic but they are being deployed during full rush hour traffic. The people who purchased these machines apparently traveled all the way to Italy to inspect them when similar machines were available down a 3 hour train ride in Delhi! More on useless foreign trips of our corrupt and dishonest bureaucratic oligarchy type rulers later on in this post.

   Underpasses : Not one has been constructed! Although enough funds were spent in Belgium while investigating how to build them, where and how to even maintain them. Maintenance for non existing underpasses!

   Firefighting equipment : Apparently a ladder was purchased for 25.1 million Rupees from Finland which is never deployed for the fire department! The details of all these sordid purchases can be found here.

Answer :The more I searched the more disappointed I got. Apparently they have a whole media trail leading up to them that proves that they are basically excuse the term pissing away public wealth. It is so terrible that there is even no finesse even when it comes to covering up their tracks.

3. Are the officers of the Administration squandering away public wealth?

Answer : Unfortunately yes. Between 2005-07, Krishna Mohan a former Home Secretary of the Administration spent an amazing Rs. 1.9 million, former Finance Secretary S.K. Sandhu spent almost a cool one million and junior officers like the Tourism Director for this disgusting and vile administration Vivek Atray spent Rs 1.6 million! So now you might ask what did they spent it all on. Foreign trips!!! They travelled business class or First Class. Stayed at the best hotels and even billed their theater tickets, entertainment expenses etc to the government. Details about their adventures in Europe and elsewhere can be found by clicking here, here and here.

So now you might ask me what does all of the above have to do with the ban on plastic bags. It is very simple. Lets just have a rough calculation of the money that was squandered away by our environment conscious administration on the topics we covered in this post alone. Here we go.

Chandigarh Administration’s Wasteful Expenditure Bill According to Odzer.Com

Projects that never paid off or took off

Garbage Disposal Plant : Rs. 300,000,000.00

Street Sweeping Machines : Rs. 30,000,000.00

Hydraulic Ladder : Rs. 25,100,000.00

Foreign trips made by various city officials with the Administration  : Rs. 5,000,000.00

Grand TOTAL : Rs. 360,100,00.00 or around US$ 727,041.90

So now lets see what you can do with that kind of money? Can you buy a plant to recycle the whole cities plastic? Well one idea can be that you should use plastic as a construction material which is already being considered by Cochi in Kerala. The price tag around 25 million rupees. 5 million less than the non functional garbage processing unit we have in place right now! Even the Chinese seem to have been putting in plastic recycling plants a country that is notorious for its pollution. Beijing just put in one at the cost of US$ 37.5 million.The Chinese are aiming to recycle plastic back in to polyster though instead of using it as contruction material. In fact the plant being considered by Kochi is far cheaper and made in India! I am not even sure we need such a huge plant to recycle our plastic in this city. In fact I am not in to the business of running the government but even I can see that in the amount of money they have just thrown away in the last few years they could have effectively solved this city’s plastic problem effectively. They might even have had some surplus funds to educate people regarding not littering the streets and seperating their garbage! In fact I am going to do next week’s post on garbage seperation. So for now all I will say is that to me it is clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Chandigarh Administration and the Municipal government are guilty of a misinformation and a deception campaign. They had the means and the ability to solve environmental problems in another way except imposing this stupid ban that is leading to such agony.

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.

Plastic ban results in more plastic!

Plastic ban results in more plastic!

Writing about a plastic ban in Chandigarh can result in some curious reactions. I have observed some on my blog as well as in life. I am going to share some now. Some common things that people have told me so far have been : -

1. Why don’t you simply use a cloth bag?

Well because I do not want to, though somehow it does not seem to be reason enough for some people. I find them inconvenient and constricting. They are also impractical for my shopping style. Actually I have noticed I have just stopped enjoying shopping because it means I have to do it as a chore instead of being able to do it spontaneously whenever I wanted to.

2. Plastic is not biodegradable, paper is.

True, but plastic is recyclable. In any case since plastic is not TOTALLY banned it needs to be recycled anyway so why don’t you just recycle carry bags as well?

3. Plastic like bags are available and they are also recyclable.

Not here. The government here has banned plastic bags without providing any alternatives except paper bags. Paper bags are not suitable to carry heavy, wet, refrigerated or liquid products.

So on and so forth, moving on. The plastic ban is actually taking a curious turn. It turns out that the retailers have finally found a loophole! The administration has banned carry bags but not plastic bags that do not have “handles”. He he he. So now they are using inferior quality handleless plastic bags which are actually thinner than our previous carry bags to put heavy or leaky things. These bags though inconvenient because they can not be carried do save some people the inconvenience of cleaning their poor cloth or jute bags which might get soiled otherwise by dirty, leaky or runny produce. However this also means we are now using far more plastic bags than we were using before. I am posting a photo of my vegetable shopping the other day where we purchased vegetables and they packed and sealed them in individual plastic bags before selling us a 5 Rupee paper bag to carry it all to home in. The most part of the journey home I kept laughing hysterically at the irony of the situation. It seems to me the environment enthusiasts had not thought of this scenario. In fact they had not thought of the scenarios that would arise from such an impractical ban at all before imposing it. As such these type of people often enough do not think of convenience or practical approaches to life because they are mother earth fan boys/girls. Anyway I am sure the head of the government here is such a fan boy because I hear next they will be making every house owner in this city put on a solar water heating system that costs thousands of rupees! Whether you can afford it or not. As a property owner of course I will never do anything to deface my house. Though they do not care about what we want or not because for them the cost of such measures, nor the desire of the people is of any consideration. This is the type of idiotic government we have which rules by imposition, decree and without any democratic mandate.

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.

When the government refuses to read its e-mail

Last week I wrote a letter to the Director of The Department of Environment, Chandigarh Administration. His name is Mr. Ishwar Singh. I did not really expect a reply but I had this faint hope that the government here does reply to the e-mails of the people who they supposedly represent. It seems they give two hoots! So I am transforming my private e-mail to the Director in to an open letter. The e-mail ID that it was sent to is dcf@chd.nic.in. Please Mr. Director if you read this letter do leave a reply!

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you regarding the recent complete ban on plastic
bags that your department has strived to impose upon the public of
Chandigarh. This ban is ill conceived and unfair. At the most it is
just a publicity stunt of your administration at the cost of the
quality of life of the people of this city. I intend therefore to
oppose this law in the media and on the internet to raise awareness
regarding how illogical it is. I am going to raise some points in
this e-mail and direct your attention towards them and as the
director of the agency responsible for environment in my city I
imagine it is your responsibility to respond to each of them.

1) Paper bags offer no alternatives : Paper takes up far more space
in landfills than plastic ever will. It takes more energy to
recycle paper than plastic and paper is basically made out of food.
It is more detrimental to use paper than plastic as carry bags.
Paper bags in Chandigarh are lousily made (and that is putting it
lightly) and they can not be used to carry heavy loads. They break
and people who carry supplies in them often face situations where
they have leaking, broken, spilit or falling produce from their
bags.

2) Plastic is recyclable and since it is not sourced from precious
wood it should be recycled. The administration will have to recycle
plastic anyway since you have not banned plastic packaging so why
not do it on a larger scale and recycle plastic carry bags as well?

3) Carrying your own bag to the markets may sound as the ideal
solution but it is clearly not. Consider my own case. I am an
impulsive shopper and I can shop even if I have not planned to do
so. Carrying your own bags means that you are restricted to the
amount that can fit in the bags that you have taken from home. This
is preposterous. Is the administration not restricting commerce
now? What right does the government have to influence consumer
spending and behaviour in a free, fair and a democratic country?
Does the government now expect every individual to carry a backpack
all the time? This is clearly draconian and unacceptable.

4) Jute or Paper bags do not make suitable carrying receptacles for
several products especially dairy and meat products. Newsprint
paper bags used in this country are toxic because ink is not meant
for human consumption! Why has the government not taken action to
ban those?

5) Plastic bags blocking drains is not an adequate excuse to ban
such bags because such blockages result from either the
administration or the municipal government’s failure to clean up
this city or from the problem of littering. Instead you should have
focussed your energies on cleaning up the city, recycling,
modification of  public behaviour by encouraging segregation of
waste etc.

6) Environment should not be allowed to  affect* commerce and the economy at large.
With alternatives available to the consumers today such bans are
irrational. I intend now to do most of my shopping outside of
Chandigarh in the adjoining towns because they do not have any bans
on carry bags and as such I find that far more convenient than
spending my money on either jute bags or trying to carry goods in
paper bags that do not last for even seconds let alone hours.

7) Other countries have no such measures and still do not get any
problems by using plastic bags including the excuses the
administration is giving like chocked drains. It means that
basically like I said earlier you are punishing the public for your
failures.

Overall your agency is responsible for the welfare of the people of
the city and its environment and I expected better from it than
imposing blanket bans which do not succeed in any case. I will be
publishing articles, blogs, starting petitions, writing to
newspapers and giving interviews wherever possible in highlighting
the quality of life issues that this law has led to in this city so
that similar laws are not adopted elsewhere and public opinion is
created for the revocation of this erring notification. Any
comments that you make will of course be subject to public
disclosure therefore. I am sure as a public servant your are
committed to the answering of queries of the people in your area.

You have my warm regards,

odzer

* Oops I wrote something different than what I intended.

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.

Today I went to drop off my mother who came to visit me and decided to drop in to one of my favourite stores to buy some snacks. We had decided to visit the store because it looked like rain and we had nothing better to do anyway. After shopping when I went to checkout the man tried putting a pack of Yakult in to a paper bag but since it had come right out of a fridge it had condensation on it and the paper bag just fell apart in his hands. So he proceeded to wrap it in newspaper and I insisted on a plastic bag. Of course knowing well he can not give me any. So they had the guy at the checkout making these beautiful and neat packages in old newspapers. Old Newspapers!!!! I have no idea where these newspapers have been before they were deployed as packaging material could even have been the store owners kitty litter lining for all I know and I am sure newspapers are toxic to humans much more than plastic bags ever can be. Then he proceeded to wrap the package with a nice plastic tape….Do you see the irony here?

Now I have this huge parcel for just a few snacks and if I were to carry home my weekly groceries in newspaper wrap it would take me around 50 of these. Do you think anyone can reasonably carry such packets. Could you imagine even carrying around 4 of these if you had been to 4 different stores? When I reached home the wrapped Yakult had already made the newspaper soggy though you can not see that well in the picture here. I just made it home before the rain broke through though if I had been some minutes late the paper would have melted away leaving me again with picking up soggy drenched produce from the pavement. Oh and all those magical jute substitute bags will not be available because all those poor NGO worker types can never match the supply by making jute bags with hand. We have 1.5 million people in this city and you can multiply that number with anything you like in your mind to imagine how many bag substitutes we need.

I intend to continue to write articles detailing about my adventures in the ” plastic free ” wonderland we call Chandigarh.

Today I am doing two posts on account of a nasty surprise I had when I went shopping. The ban on plastic bags in Chandigarh is severely affecting our lives and we are harassed beyond words. I am using some really strong language to express my opinion today. Although this has eroded some of the objectivity of what I say below it is sort of therapeutic for me to vent in this manner. I will post further updates to this till the court takes up an appeal against this law on October 22. I hope we can return back to some sanity after that because the hardships we face right now are extreme.

Now that my fair city has already banned smoking in public last year they have decided to ban Plastic bags of all sizes, shapes, colours and thickness as well. Briliant! Now we can use paper bags, paper is made of what? Guess Guess——>Trees! Morons!!! No wait a second Fucking Morons!

Today I went shopping and I came home scaterring half the things I purchased, running after delinquent onions that just did not want to stop rolling away from the torn paper bags. If they have not provided us with any alternatives how are we supposed to shop! Use Calabashes or the Administrators head as a shopping receptacle? Do these people who run this supposedly elitist city ever go shopping or do they send their errand boys for that? Have they ever heard of impulsive shopping? When you are somewhere shopping for lets say a pack of milk and you decide to buy a dozen eggs as well? Well how are you supposed to carry them home? Yeah bring your own bag, but how? You cant carry bags with you 24 hours a day? Even if you do carry a bag I buy enough groceries every week to fill several huge plastic bags, how will they fit in one cloth bag? MORONS!!

Packaging in India sucks already. They sell oil in plastic pouches for heaven’s sake! They leak and they are nasty. How is banning plastic bags going to save the bloody environment and even if it does who cares!! Breathing is bad enough for the environment, should we just all die now? IDIOTS!! What world do these people really live in?

Oh and in case you go shopping for clothes or books and end up shopping that weighs kilos, you are in deep trouble. Every shopkeeper I talked with today was complaining, the chemist was worried about the ladies who buy their menstrual goodies and like them in nice black plastic bags. Oh by the way how are you supposed to carry meat eh? Paper bags hardly make good receptacles for that and there is no such thing as packaged meat in India. CRAZY FUCKING IDIOTS!!

Am I angry? Yes sure I am!! This is what I mean by government getting carried away and people allowing these crazy bans. There is no stopping it now, may be they should ban blogs they do not like now. Oh what am I saying. They can already do it!!

There are other issues to consider since Panchkula and Mohali our sister cities have not been crazy enough, their plastic bags can still pollute Chandigarh. Ugh! What if someone buys their groceries in Mohali and lives in Chandigarh? There are parts of our city that are nearer to Mohali markets than Chandigarh ones! ANOTHER REASON THAT TELLS YOU THAT WE HAVE MORONS FOR GOVERNMENT!! Oh and if this publicity stunt does go through consider the costs, the so called environment friendly carry bags that they are advising shop keepers to use sell for around 7 rupees each. Someone who makes 50 rupees a day will find that so useful! MORONS!!! MORONS!!! MORONS!!!

Now we already had strict enough laws to deal with plastic bags in the first place. They cite Himachal. Well due respect to Himachal but Himachal is no Chandigarh. The standard of life is very different between the two places, did they consider that? I AM SURE NOT. I hope someone in the government here does read this and thinks it over. If he or she does not just go for a weeks or months shopping and try doing it with paper and jute bags. GOOD LUCK!! I am beginning to think Draconian laws are something that are just confined to history books. Welcome to Chandigarh!! Cover your head with a brown paper bag!