High-cost cloth bags may impede ban on plastic

RANCHI: The ban on use of polythene bags in the city will be effective from June 1 but both residents and traders are keeping their fingers crossed on its implementation in the absence of what they call a practical and cheap alternative.
has received mixed response from both the public and the business fraternity. While a section of residents and traders have started finding a new alternative in place of using the banned item, there are many who still continue to use plastics.
Yogendra Poddar, president of small scale retail industries, said, "We small traders can find a proper alternative by using paper bags and envelopes, but unless the government implements the ban properly on manufacturing of polythene bags, the menace cannot be controlled."
Another trader Manoj Singhania, president of the wholesale clothes committee, said shopkeepers were facing problems because of the ban on polythene bags. "The cost of cloth bags is high and we don't charge anything from the customers for these bags," he said.
Singhania added the cost of cloth bags, which cost between Rs 15 to Rs 20 and will even cost more when the name of the shop is printed on it, would put an extra burden on customers as well as the traders.
After the Ranchi Municipal Corporation and the urban development department on Friday decided to crack the whip on use of plastics with thickness less than 40 micron and measuring 18x12 inches in size, many homemakers feel that paper bags should be introduced to vegetable vendors and fruit sellers as are done in metro cities.
Abha Thakur, a homemaker, said, "There was a time when we used to carry jute bags for shopping that will have to be brought into practice now by all of us." The administration should also make sure that eco-friendly bags are available in markets that can be used in case anybody fails to carry jute bags, she added.
Another shop-owner Jasleen Kaur at Main Road said, "We have started using the paper bags and jute bags but the main problem arising here is that these bags are so costly that customers sometimes avoid these bags."
The costs of jute bags range from Rs 18 - Rs 22 while the paper bags range from Rs 8 - Rs 10 depending upon the quality of papers used.
However, some NGOs have come forward to make cloth bags which will be introduced in the market on World Environment Day on June 5 which will cost between Rs 5 and Rs 10.
Chairman of the pollution control board Manishankar said a notification regarding the ban had been issued that would be enforced from June 1.