Threat of plastic bags bigger than atom bomb: SC

[sarang]

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Last week in saravana bhavan, radhakrishnan road, chennai, I saw a north indian gentleman ordering parcel service of typical dosa-idli type items. He had brought assorted sizes of lock and lock plastic containers for most of the items. In fact he showed them while placing the order. I am not sure whether he was given a rebate.

If more people follow 'reduce, reuse, recycle' mantra whenever possible, we can breath easy.

The issue of 'plastic bag pollution' the environmentalists, supreme court and municipalities are referring to is the indiscriminate mixing thin plastic bags with other garbage by all. If plastic waste can be collected separately, it can be processed easily. There is a plant near chennai to recover light and heavy oils from waste plastics. I read in an article that, in bangalore, 10% out of 4000 tons of daily garbage collected is plastics and 4000 litres of oil can be recovered.

 

[Dr.S.Ramanathan]

I am glad that, after my earlier article, the postings have changed to reusage of plastics. There is no alternative to plastics until something else, more convenient and useful is discovered. What is important is, to be careful, while thin plastic covers etc are used. We will be responsible ciizens if we take them out from being thrown out into the garbage and give them to rag pickers, who, in turn, can give it to factories manufacturing plastic bags. Most of the black coloured plastic bags are such recycled plastics.
Regards, Ramanathan.

 

[prasad1]

What I have observed is that polythene degrades on long exposure to sun. Nylon ropes too. Glass does not.

Jute cultivation and processing is nearly finished in India. Better paying crops are avalable. So, forget about jute carry bags.

Cotton bags are made from a relatively inferior fibre, better quality goes for textiles.

Both cotton and jute bags are NOT water proof, a very strong criterion.

You do not cart along stainless steel vessels on the off chance that you MIGHT bring packaged food. I am a N. Indian. But we do take S. Indian food. Coconut chutney and sambhar are put into polythene bags. Dosa, idly, uttapam etc. can be in paper bags. And all are put into a large, strong carry bag of plastic.

Flip side of paper is that it has acids, which easily get into your cooked food. Acid is what turns a paper yellow and makes it crumble.

And natural leaf wrappings are not easy to find. But imagine how many banana trees would be needed to satify the demand all over India.

Well written and to the point. Well done Mr. rcscwc.