The civic body 'soft-launched' the ban by spreading awareness on alternatives first.
Dear readers,
Three days to go for 2018 to draw to a close and so also our Gratitude series. We have been thanking people andorganisations that helped us smile through the past 12 months in these year-ender stories. Today, we thank Mumbai's not-much-liked municipal corporation for initiating the plastic ban. Surely, the ban has not worked a 100%, but there is a move to work towards a better environment and that is what we are thankful for.
Though Maharashtra's ban on plastic has been losing its shine, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been stubbornly ramming through closed doors to find a way to implement it. In the past six months since the ban was implemented on June 23, 2018, the civic body has visited over 3.5 lakh shops and seized over 44,000 kg of banned plastic — an amount eight times higher than what it seized collectively in the last five years. Till the second week of December, BMC had raided over 3.77 lakh shops and collected Rs 1.77 crore in fine. It has also dragged 320 shops to court for refusal to pay the fine.
Though the scenario is far from perfect – manufacturers and distributors still have to find alternatives to plastic packaging and set up incentives to customers for bringing back recyclables – other states have approached the BMC for guidance on the contentious ban. Before Bihar implemented a similar ban starting December 14, a four-member team from the state's Pollution Control Board (BSPCB) interacted with senior civic officials on a draft preparation in August.
The civic body 'soft-launched' the ban by spreading awareness on alternatives first. It held a three-day exhibition on alternatives to plastic at National Sport Club of India (NSCI) in Worli on June 22,23 and 24 . Manufacturers and distributors of areca palm nut and paper alternatives to plates, straws and cups participated and received over 2,000 queries within a couple of days of the exhibition. In the first two weeks of the ban, civic officials visited shops personally to educate shopkeepers and traders on alternatives they could use and stock.
The civic body formed a special squad of 300 officials from Market, License, and Shop and Establishments departments – christened the Blue Squad – that visited malls, shops and establishments, eateries to scan for the banned material.
It has also set up 24 centres across 37 wards to collect banned plastic. "People can still deposit their plastic waste," said Vijay Balamvar, deputy municipal commissioner (Election), who is also in charge of implementing the ban. The toll-free number (1800222357) disburses information on the location of these centres.
Currently, there's a stand-off between the state and milk suppliers over plastic bags used to package milk. Close to 1.5 crore plastic milk bags are generated in Mumbai alone, every day. Reverting to a system of resuable glass bottles could raise the price of the daily essential by Rs 10-15, say producers -- a cost that will have to be borne by customers. Tetrapacks could raise the price by Rs 30 a litre, and it would still harm the environment.
The state is trying to get milk distributors to recollect discarded bags by offering a consumers a discount of 50 paise to Re 1 per returned bag. This, say suppliers, is practically impossible to implement.
The State has set a deadline of January 1, 2019 for the producers and distributors to introduce a recycling system.
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