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India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

globalcitizen.org

251–260 of 269 posts

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's a complete lack of morality and respect for other's property, and community in general. Unless you're visiting from another state, it's YOUR OWN property; you are the public.

I don't normally complain/comment about downvotes, but I'm not getting the downvotes here. Input? Maybe my sentence was just poorly worded?

If I had to guess, I'd say that there are two possible interpretations of your comment:

1) Public spaces are your property as well, so you should feel even worse about trashing your own space.

2) Public spaces are yours, after all, and you can do whatever you want with your own property.

Downvoters most likely assumed that you intended the latter.

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#252

This is India. Starving, thirsty, injured (hit by cars and trucks) cows and dogs roam the streets, hobbling along, limping along. There are people starving on the street-side. The poorest children are openly prostituted on the streets. How are they going to enforce a rule regarding plastic bags? The rich will continue to do whatever they want. The middle-classes will continue to do whatever they can get away with. Th…

Public Smoking ban has been largely effective in India. You rarely see people smoking in public areas. The effectiveness of these laws are that it allows concerned citizens to raise their voice when they see law is being broken.

> it allows concerned citizens to raise their voice when they see law is being broken

How exactly do concerned citizens raise their voice in India? I once saw a stray dog that had been run over by a car licking its wounds, waiting to die. After which it would lay there on the road-side until it had been eaten by birds and insects. I wanted to raise awareness of my various concerns about this. How should I have gone about it? Genuinely interested in learning from you.

An aside: the stoic, pious strength I saw on the dog's face as it licked itself, knowing it was dying, was one of the most powerful things I've ever seen.

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> rural south of the US That's the problem. Get out of there ASAP. It has no redeeming qualities. Best move of my life. Unless you have deep roots there and you want to take on the monumental task of actually making your own part of it a better place. Maybe join the city council of a town near a place like Atlanta or Tuscaloosa, and try to spread their civilization a little further into the wilderness.

Wow, you dont like the south, but stop being a bigot. You are demonstrating the EXACT blind hatred you imply you are against. STOP.

Agreed. As someone who has spent most of his life in various parts of the South, there are good and bad parts, same as anywhere else.

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't normally complain/comment about downvotes, but I'm not getting the downvotes here. Input? Maybe my sentence was just poorly worded?

If I had to guess, I'd say that there are two possible interpretations of your comment: 1) Public spaces are your property as well, so you should feel even worse about trashing your own space. 2) Public spaces are yours, after all, and you can do whatever you want with your own property. Downvoters most likely assumed that you intended the latter.

yeah, I realized that people may have been reading #2 - I cottoned on to that about 5 minutes ago. :)

#1 was what I meant, and it's how I was hearing it in my head in my own voice when I typed it!! :)

Why do people not feel bad about trashing their own public spaces? I don't want to go all "leave it to beaver", but is there no pride in your environment at all?

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#255
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is how India rolls. I am not sure how the poor street food vendors survive if they cant use plastic plates and spoons. If they are forced to use steel plates and spoons that is a health and safety nightmare in India.

There are plenty of cost effective traditional alternatives. Banana leaves, hand made leaf plates, machine made leaf plates, in the worst case paper plates. Plastics are just convenient and cheap, if the environmental costs are not considered. Edible cutlery http://www.bakeys.com/

Many of those alternatives are significantly more expensive than plastic and might be simply unavailable in Delhi.

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#256
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banana leaves may be traditional and popular in southern India where banana grows aplenty. In Delhi banana leaves would be used in chic restaurants with traditional touch. It is no way going to be used by street vendors. I have normally seen steel plates/spoon used by street vendors. Not very hygienic as they just rinse in water after use.

When I visited Nepal, a lot of the street vendors had these bowls made of leaves (perhaps banana leaf, not really sure). I have no idea if they are financially better off or cost effective but thought I'd mention that I've seen something like this before.

I buy it on regular basis for religious functions as we don't use plastic in religious ceremonies to the extent possible. These alternatives are nearly 3 times more expensive and availability is a real issue. Not to mention the environmental impact of breaking branches of trees to get leaves quickly.

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#257
post #181
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is how India rolls. I am not sure how the poor street food vendors survive if they cant use plastic plates and spoons. If they are forced to use steel plates and spoons that is a health and safety nightmare in India.

>>If they are forced to use steel plates and spoons that is a health and safety nightmare in India. This is one more of those things which we as current generation kids have grown into. When I was a kid traditional muslim marriages used glass tumblers in marriage lunches. Which used be rinsed in a common drum by guy who would have barely bathed in a month. I remember we barely used to fall ill in those days. We used…

> We mixed with dirt and infection is a way our immune systems were trained well.

Immunity to natural infections is different. In places like Delhi or Mumbai a lot of water sources are polluted by some serious chemical toxins like mercury, arsenic and what not.

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#258
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 weeks ago on my way to work, I watched a guy pull off to the side of the road. He opened his car door, and just dumped trash out - a few small bags of trash. He had just driven past a gas station and convenience store - both with publicly accessible trash cans to throw stuff away - you don't even have to get out of your car. It's a bizarre mindset some people have - let me drive past the driver-accessible trash can…

That's awful. I'm fairly sure here in Canada, people would pick the trash up and chase you down the road with it. I've never seen it happen though.

Someone posted this in a different thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo3cVuvVRUE

(looks like Russia, though)

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Public Smoking ban has been largely effective in India. You rarely see people smoking in public areas. The effectiveness of these laws are that it allows concerned citizens to raise their voice when they see law is being broken.

> it allows concerned citizens to raise their voice when they see law is being broken How exactly do concerned citizens raise their voice in India? I once saw a stray dog that had been run over by a car licking its wounds, waiting to die. After which it would lay there on the road-side until it had been eaten by birds and insects. I wanted to raise awareness of my various concerns about this. How should I have gone a…

> How exactly do concerned citizens raise their voice in India?

In general, much the same as other countries. Call/write/meet with your municipal corporation member/MLA/MP (though it's doubtful you'll get an audience unless you have an in). Call/write/meet with the opposition party members, if it's something that can make the party in power look bad. Post on social media. If it's newsworthy, there's a very noisy (and competitive) print and TV media willing to listen to you. I'm not saying all these are effective options, but they _are_ options.

> I wanted to raise awareness of my various concerns about this. How should I have gone about it? Genuinely interested in learning from you.

You could've tried to take it to a vet. My friends and I did this once with a kitten that got run over. It died before we made it unfortunately. Ofc, there's probably a greater risk of being bitten by a panicky dog that's in pain, than with a kitten (my friend got bitten).

Re: India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi

#260
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of cost effective traditional alternatives. Banana leaves, hand made leaf plates, machine made leaf plates, in the worst case paper plates. Plastics are just convenient and cheap, if the environmental costs are not considered. Edible cutlery http://www.bakeys.com/

Banana leaves may be traditional and popular in southern India where banana grows aplenty. In Delhi banana leaves would be used in chic restaurants with traditional touch. It is no way going to be used by street vendors. I have normally seen steel plates/spoon used by street vendors. Not very hygienic as they just rinse in water after use.

North india also uses leaf plates, which upon usage, are normally disposed by feeding them to cattle (in villages, this is very common)
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