Bid adieu to plastic peril

Plastic pollutes the environment and even kills animals. LALITHA SRIDHAR spells out some simple options to save the planet.

WE HAVE been hearing and reading about how bad plastic is for our environment. But the reason why a campaign against plastic remains largely marginalised is because most of us believe that there are very few practical alternatives in sight.

Not many of us remember that till just a few years ago, we had milk, oil and cold drinks being sold in glass bottles and provisions, clothes, bread, biscuits etc. wrapped in paper.

At public places, tea was served in mud cups and food in dry leaf donnais while we shopped for vegetables with cloth bags. The alternatives existed long before plastic stormed the scene and ambushed our environment.

Cheap, capable of carrying any form of matter and of being moulded into any shape, light in weight and generally unbreakable - plastic came with so many user-friendly qualities that even subsequent to the understanding of its ill-effects, it was impossible to wish away.

But efforts are now under way to expedite viable options. Besides Governmental intervention, there are companies such as Paper Bag Products which are hoping to make a difference. An exclusive wholesale supplier of paper bags in South India, the enterprise was started by V. Vijay Sundaram less than a year ago.

After visiting the United States and Europe, this entrepreneur who had just retired from an electrical-supplies contracting business, felt motivated by the tremendous consumer awareness in those countries regarding the long-term ill-effects of using plastic extensively.

At many places abroad, vending machines supplied paper bags to customers who preferred to purchase these if (and this wasn't very often) the shop failed to offer eco-friendly alternatives.

Setting up the required machinery in a factory at Villivakkam, Sundaram has since been manufacturing and innovating solutions for the vexed plastic bags problem. He now has a range of paper bags, which are capable of carrying weights upto seven kilos. Made from recycled as well as recyclable paper, the strength of the bags is decided after determining their "break factor".

Besides the environmental advantages, the paper bags are attractive, lightweight, capable of carrying promotional literature on all four sides and suitable for packaging virtually anything. Also under trials are jute-lined bags which can carry upto 10 kilos of provisions or vegetables - ideal for department stores and other shops.

Machine-made and with a good finish, labour is involved only in fixing handles and pasting the floor of the bag.

Says Sundaram, "Consumer awareness has to be generated for the market to really grow. At the moment we are operating well below capacity since the response has not been very good. We hope to introduce more innovations and simultaneously generate the willingness in people to try user-friendly, good quality paper bags."

Their gift bags (which use glossy, imported paper) have proven to be very popular at the few upmarket retail outlets.

Paper bags are also used as traditional vettalai-paaku-thengai- pais for weddings, upanayanams and so on. These come custom-made with names, date and event announcements besides being embellished with traditional motifs like Ganeshas and kalashams.

Also afoot are plans to sell blank bags to the wholesalers at Andersons Street (opposite the High Court), so that they may later be screen-printed to meet individual requirements.

Prices range from Rs.2.50 to Rs.6.50 per bag depending on the thickness of the paper used and the size of the bag.

The cost factor is certainly higher than that of the ubiquitous plastic bags but one hopes that the buyers will also keep in mind the price our environment is paying.

Paper Bag Products may be contacted at 6264273 or E-mail - vijays@md4.vsnl.net.in

A hazard to environment

PLASTIC HAS been making a lot of news in the recent past - for all the wrong reasons. The Chennai Municipal Corporation has passed a resolution seeking the ban of plastic bags with a thickness of less than 20 microns. Even as that measure awaits ratification from the State Government, businesses which have vested interests in the plastic trade, have protested under the aegis of the Tamil Nadu Plastic Manufacturers' Association (TAPMA).

But the packaging industry being the largest consumer of plastic, cannot ignore the devastating consequences of the indiscriminate use of plastic, It poses a grave threat due to its non- biodegradability, which means it will not disintegrate unlike paper, jute, metal, glass or mud.

Noted personalities such as the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board chairperson, Ms Sheela Rani Chunkath, are speaking up to educate the public against the use of plastic. They are also the principal culprits in the clogging of our storm water drains, the slow poisoning of the deer in our zoo and the cows on our street (animals which munch carelessly thrown litter) besides, leeching through the subsoil of our landfills with their potent cocktail of chemical toxins and causing atmospheric pollution when burnt. For anybody who cares about the future of our environment, plastic is a powerful adversary.

In a fight where we are losing battles every day, what we need is the weapon of conscientious citizenship. With that we can easily win the war.

Solution in sight?

ULTIMATELY, NOT much can be achieved unless there is an understanding at the grass roots level, of the harm that plastic can cause. Non-biodegradability is a difficult issue to explain, particularly to the uneducated.

On various occasions, this writer has experienced reactions ranging from scepticism to amusement when explaining that a purchase need not be put in a plastic bag. While buying vegetables, one can get a dozen bags without even asking.

As one vendor rued, "Usually, if I don't give plastic bags, I lose customers."

It works better if the health hazards (particularly to children) are stressed. Another vendor of mangoes, who was putting a kilo into two bags since one would tear under the weight of the fruit, said, "Each bag costs only five paise. Most of my customers are just passers-by who don't carry bags. If I don't stock plastic bags, my business will not flourish."

Ramakrishnan, who regularly shops on his way home, when asked if he knew of the dangers of plastic, said, "Yes, of course, I have read about it." Wouldn't he consider it prudent to carry a folded cloth bag regularly instead? "Yes," he admits, "But I have not done so yet. It is simply a question of convenience."

Janaki, also educated, actually prefers shops which give her "good plastic bags". She explains, "I often find uses for them in the house - particularly the big ones are useful for lining our dustbin."

On the other hand, there have been many discerning customers who write to department store client suggestion books/newsletters seeking an end to the liberal issue of plastic bags but as the manager of a popular chain of department stores says, "We have to give as many as our customers want. That is why we cannot use the more expensive paper bags."

The proprietor of a fruit-vegetable shop in T. Nagar promised to look into the matter. He said he was holding talks with a jute bag seller in Kolkata to replace the plastic ones his shop issued generously - that was two months ago and there has been no change since. Another shopkeeper in Adyar made it a rule right from the beginning that he will not use plastic bags. The system works because his customers are now quite used to it and come prepared with their own bags. It is actually children who learn most easily and teach even better, says Malathy, whose seven-year old participated in a poster competition on the "Say No To Plastics" theme. Now, every time they shop together, her daughter tells her to refuse plastic carry bags.

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