Plastic Bags: A Hazardous Consumer Item

Anis Ahmad

A thousand years or so from now, when the archaeologists of the future will be digging the soil to discover new things, they may not find skeletons, skulls and jaws! What they will find is “plastic bags”. They are everywhere: stuck up trees, decorating the sides of our roads, piled up under the kitchen sink; blocking drains, trapping birds and killing livestock, whales, turtles and other sea life.  

Although plastic bags didn’t come into widespread use until the early 1980’s, but today housewives love them and shoppers find it indispensable. However, the environmentalists claim them as hazardous, because may take as many as 1000 years to degrade in a landfill, and 450 years in water. Plastic bags don’t biodegrade; rather they photo-degrade, which means that they break down into smaller and smaller toxic bits, contaminating soil and waterways, entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest and so becoming part of our own food-stream. As such, they not only harm the environment, but also pose danger to the health of human beings and animals. Also, plastic bags contain harmful toxic metals like chromium and copper, which cause diseases like allergies, cancer, malfunctioning of kidneys, limbs, etc., if thrown in water, they affect the life of marine and animals.

About 100,000 whales, seals, turtles and other marine animals; are killed by plastic bags each year worldwide, according to the report of Planet Ark, an international environmental group of July 2004. Moreover, it is estimated that 95% of the urban cows in India are walking around with plastic bags blocking their digestive systems - ironic in a country that reveres the cow as a sacred animal. 

Earlier, the problem of plastic bags was dealt with by recycling. Discarded plastic bags were picked up by rag-pickers from the streets and then sold to plastic industries for recycling. Various city corporations also bought them up as landfill material. But these days, due to intense market competition in the plastic industry and use of better technology, manufacturers are making thinner bags that are uneconomical to recycle. Therefore, even the rag-pickers and waste pickers, instead of collecting such bags, dump them into the drains.  

Abdul Shahid, a rag picker accepts this fact. He says, “I have been picking discarded plastic bags since three years. I usually tattered ones into because they are not accepted by the city corporations and plastic recycling firms”.  

Plastic bags have now become an urban nightmare. They are known as notorious blockers of sewage lines and drains. The governments of Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Maharashtra, Goa, Bangalore and Assam have already banned manufacturing, sale and use of thin plastic bags having thickness of less than 20 microns. There is also a provision of penalties for the offenders.    

However, all these steps have not proved ample to combat the problem. People still prefer using plastic bags because of the unavailability of bags made up of biodegradable materials like jute, cloth and paper. The main reason behind the constant use of plastic bags is the partial implementation of ban only on thin plastic bags in selective Indian states.

Banning only thin plastic bags because they are usually dumped, and hence, they choke the drains in several cities, does not solve the problem. Plastic is harmful whether it is in the form of thin or thick plastic bags.  Bhuvan Thapliyal, a plastic bag user, throws light on this aspect. Bhuvan says, “I use plastic bags as they are available everywhere. Shopkeepers generally do not use biodegradable paper bags. So we have to carry these bags despite their worse effects”.  

Rakesh, a fruit seller, agrees, “I prefer using plastic bags as they are resistible and cheap. Paper bags can’t bear the weight of objects for long time and get torn.”     

Recycled plastic bags too are no less harmful to the health of people. These bags have high levels of contamination. Most of the times, these bags are difficult to wash and residuals often remain in the bags which give birth to serious contamination. These bags are normally found in black colour and contain harmful colour pigments. Being cheaper, these are in great demand. One kilogram of recycled bags cost between Rs. 35-40 only. Bags made of virgin plastics cost around Rs. 70 per kilogram. 

Seen from the economy angle, the ban on even the small section of manufacturers, affects the life of people engaged in this industry. According to Arvind Mehta, Managing Director of the All India Plastic Manufacturers Association, “the ban on the manufacturing plants and distributors of plastic bags not only affects the life of people working in this industry but also paralyzes our economy. If the use of plastic bags is harmful on the one hand, then the ban on this plastic industry is also negative in nature on the other.”   

Harinder Singh, a distributor of plastic products in Delhi, also agrees with Arvind Mehta. He says, “The ban on plastic bags surely affects the livelihood of people like me and Indian economy as well. But fortunately, there is no ban on plastic carry bags in Delhi. So I am still in better position than other people who are facing serious crises in states where these bags are banned”. 

As per the Basel Convention, to which India is a signatory, if a country prohibits a particular article, either on the production or on the consumption front, it cannot trade in that product internationally. This means, if plastic bags are banned in India or by any State in India, no producer from anywhere in the country can export it.  

Industry estimates put the value of various types of plastic bags exported from India in the year of 2004-05 in excess of Rs. 500 crore. Also, there would be a spin-off effect as goods packaged in plastic bags such as mango-pulp, fish, spices and other food items too would fall under the purview of this ban. This, in turn, would take up the monetary impact of the ban to well over Rs. 1,000 crore. 

Some of the major importers of plastic bags from India include the likes of Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Selfridges and Publics. A variety of plastic bags are exported from India, such as block bags, shoppers bags, garbage bags, bin liners, flat bags, grocery bags, milk bags and so on. There are some 600 factories in the country manufacturing plastic bags. 

About 60 million tons of plastic is used in the packaging sector out of the total of about 170 million tons consumed throughout the World. India consumes only 4.5 million tons and, therefore, is a very small user of plastics in the World. This banning hampers the growth of plastic in our country.

Plastics, due to their relatively higher cost efficiency, benefit ordinary citizens in sourcing their daily necessities conveniently and at a fraction of the cost as compared to paper, glass or cloth. Use of alternative materials would result in substantial increase in packaging cost of milk, edible oil, bread, cereals, pulses, spices, confectionery items, toiletry products and a host of other items used by common man. It may even push some of these products beyond the reach of poorer section of the society.

Despite all the issues related to economy involved, the fact that these poly-bags pose health risks not only to the users, but also to those involved in their manufacturing, cannot be denied. What is very important is that the Government should try to find practical solution to the basic problem on lack of discipline in our society; we have an inborn culture of keeping ourselves neat and clean, but are yet to develop a habit of keeping our surroundings and environment free of litter and garbage.

While it is true that the Indian society would take another 50 years to improve and inculcate a sense of hygienic cleanliness, banning of things of use is not the answer. Instead, some steps like use of minimum 20 microns thick plastic bags, printing of Manufacturer’s name on thinner bags, development of more efficient disposal and collection system by municipalities with the help of Plastic industry would prove to be beneficial. Additionally, establishment of an incineration project to utilize the waste plastic products can be established by municipality to curb the problems of choking of drains as a result of littered plastic products.