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Mumbai bans plastic bags, bottles, and single-use plastic containers

theguardian.com

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Re: Mumbai bans plastic bags, bottles, and single-use plastic containers

#61

Post by ciex »

0xFFC wrote: post #56
WalterBright wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better to use paper packaging. For food it can be waxed like in the olden days.

Doesn’t paper bags literally mean demand for more papers and consequently more jungle would be destroyed?

I was about to write that certified timber has a great sustainability record. You can recycle all of it and when it regrows it does so by pulling carbon from the atmosphere. But when I read the WP article [1] on sustainability of paper I saw that the actual problem seems not to be in the wood used, but in other pollutants released into nature when producing paper.

[1]: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_paper

Re: Mumbai bans plastic bags, bottles, and single-use plastic containers

#62

Post by freeflight »

simion314 wrote: post #6

A tax seems the fair solution, if it costs X to dispose of a plastic bottle then tax X each bottle, use the money to dispose of the bottle, adjust X if costs change.

Bottle deposit works way better and doesn't punish people with less money as much as a tax would.

Re: Mumbai bans plastic bags, bottles, and single-use plastic containers

#63

Post by Arnt »

0xFFC wrote: post #56
WalterBright wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better to use paper packaging. For food it can be waxed like in the olden days.

Doesn’t paper bags literally mean demand for more papers and consequently more jungle would be destroyed?

No.

Paper bags don't add up to much. The Indians use vast numbers of small bags. I weighed a paper bag I got some fruit in just now, 7g. Divide by x to compensate for realistic recycling. A tree weighs several million grams. Not all of it becomes paper, but still, one tree is a lot of 7g bags.

Adding to that: Once the paper is burned or rots, the route back to a new tree is fairly short. Not like plastic, which forms new oil in fifty million years.

Re: Mumbai bans plastic bags, bottles, and single-use plastic containers

#64

Post by sschueller »

I think this is a good step but what a lot of countries lack is also proper disposal of trash.

Landfills are a poor solution, better are clean trash burning facilities[1] that also produce energy as well as proper pre sorting.

China is building the largest in the world which is to open in 2020. [2]

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/science/earth/13trash.htm...

[2] https://www.sciencealert.com/china-is-building-the-largest-w...

Re: Mumbai bans plastic bags, bottles, and single-use plastic containers

#65

Post by xxxdarrenxxx »

majewsky wrote: post #49

Honest question: What will plastic bottles be replaced with that's more environmentally friendly? I can easily see plastic bags being replaced by jute bags, but the only alternative material for bottles that I know of is glass, which does not seem like a good alternative given its weight and fragility (and possibly energy use during production).

A paradigm shift helps. Many people go buy stuff and ask for a bag to go with it. I have done so for half my life, but since I'm aware of the impact I now just bring my own bag/crate. I must have saved 500 bags and thats just me as 1 person. If everyone would do something as simple then the upfront nature cost will be so much lower.

Funnily enough bags often cost 10 cents so it even saves money albeit a trivial amount saved nonetheless.

Re: Mumbai bans plastic bags, bottles, and single-use plastic containers

#67

Post by maccard »

simion314 wrote: post #15
dingaling wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But such a tax gives no incentive for companies to change their packaging. The tax is paid by the customer who usually has few or no options. For example in the UK plastic one-litre milk pitcher bottles are ubiquitous. Even the few remaining door-to-door milkmen deliver them, instead of the old one-pint reusable glass bottles. I simply can't buy fresh milk in anything else and i have a recycling bin full of them. Rev…

If plastic bottle costs more then a glass/metal one then you will buy the metal one, metal can be recycled, glass can be reused, the company that sells plastic will go out of business in a short time. I am OK with a ban too but I think some political ideology will hate that but will allow a fiar costs that includes the price of cleanup/recycling

> If plastic bottle costs more then a glass/metal one then you will buy the metal one

There is truth in that, but the consumer situation in the UK is currently that plastic is the only choice. Not that it's the cheapest.

Re: Mumbai bans plastic bags, bottles, and single-use plastic containers

#68

Post by thewhitetulip »

Arnt wrote: post #63
0xFFC wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn’t paper bags literally mean demand for more papers and consequently more jungle would be destroyed?

No. Paper bags don't add up to much. The Indians use vast numbers of small bags. I weighed a paper bag I got some fruit in just now, 7g. Divide by x to compensate for realistic recycling. A tree weighs several million grams. Not all of it becomes paper, but still, one tree is a lot of 7g bags. Adding to that: Once the paper is burned or rots, the route back to a new tree is fairly short. Not like plastic, which forms…

On top of that, these days paper isn't manufactured by cutting down forests we have more eco friendly ways of manufacturing paper, in and out of India

Re: Mumbai bans plastic bags, bottles, and single-use plastic containers

#69

Post by thewhitetulip »

sbmthakur wrote: post #39

This is a Maharashtra wide ban. It's being strictly implemented in my neighborhood(a Mumbai suburb).

Truth be told, this came quote late. A friend of mine told me that the town of alibag banned plastics few years back. Of course they are a tourism based economy

Re: Mumbai bans plastic bags, bottles, and single-use plastic containers

#70

Post by thewhitetulip »

rubzah wrote: post #51
kamaal wrote: post #34

Officially, :) In reality we all know how this will go. If anything plastic use may now increase. Because it will now go unregulated. Bans in India need to be taken with a pinch of salt. They banned tinted glasses on cars. In Bangalore, some people prefer to pay fine/bribe than remove the sticker.

Agree. Anyone who has been to India knows how small a role regulations play in everyday life. Nobody cares. At most this will give a couple of corrupt police officers another opportunity to hand out 'fines'.

The state of Gujarat is a total dry state and yet a local politician's son was found to be drunk as fuck wreaking havoc in the main airport!

Regulations, laws are a joke in India. The political class controls everythinf

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