The stretch test

Plastic bag ban

A car, says the government of Australia, can be driven for 11 meters on the amount of petroleum it takes to make a single plastic bag. But greater fossil fuel use, and the resulting environmental damage, is not the only reason to limit the use of the ubiquitous single-use, lightweight plastic bags. They clog drainage systems and choke livestock to death. They have been associated with suffocation in children. When these bags are carried to open ocean by streams, they can be a menace to marine life. No wonder governments around the world have either completely banned them or are in the process of doing so. On Baishak 1 (April 15), Nepal joined the illustrious list. The government, under public pressure, banned plastic bags under 40 microns in thickness from Kathmandu Valley; for outside the valley, the thickness was fixed at a less exacting 30 microns. The ban was rigorously imposed. Government teams were deployed to conduct surprise inspections of retail and wholesale shops; check points were established on roads and private and public vehicles inspected for any plastic on board. At the supermarkets, virtually overnight, cashiers refused to dispense the handy plastic bags to pack in new purchases.Then, the unthinkable happened. The earthquake on April 25th and the subsequent aftershocks (that continue to this day) put a stop to any monitoring for compliance with the new regulation. As quickly as they had disappeared from the market, the ultra-thin and dangerous plastic monsters made a roaring comeback. Now, in most of Kathmandu, they are in vogue again. But this could soon change as the government seems to be in a mood to resume with its strict monitoring regimen. In the first phase, says the government, the users of plastic bags will be let off with a warning. If they are still found to be violating the ban in the second phase, they will be liable for punishment. According to the Environment Protection Act (1997), an individual or organization that in any way "harms the environment" can be fined up to Rs 50,000. That should be disincentive enough, if the new law can be properly enforced. Similar bans have proven devilishly difficult to implement in parts of India where they have been tried. People, even the environmentally-conscious ones, find it hard to wean themselves off the cheap and easy plastic tote bags. Nor is it easy to check their production, for, given the open Indo-Nepal border, Nepali markets are flooded with plastic bags from potentially countless manufacturers, big and small.

The initial success can be illusory. For instance, many Indian cities, just like Kathmandu, were able to strictly enforce the ban at the start. But soon the municipal authorities found themselves busy with other things and the use of plastic bags started creeping up again. The same thing could happen here. Tens (if not hundreds) of dedicated market monitors will be needed to strictly enforce the ban in the long run. One way to ensure such compliance would be to keep up the kind of sustained pressure from environment groups, the media and the public at large that we got to see in the lead up to the April ban. But such enthusiasm is hard to sustain. As the wanton ways in which our 'regulated' medical shops and jewelers and sweet sellers operate shows, having laws to punish wrongdoing is not enough.

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