The Maharashtra Government was late in banning the use of plastic but when it finally did, the people seemed to be ill-prepared for it. Reports from Mumbai and other places speak of daily hardships to shopkeepers and consumers for want of an alternative carry-bags of paper, jute or even cloth. It would have avoided these problems had the users of plastic bags been prepared for the drastic change. Of course, this is not to question the ban. It is welcome. Plastic waste is now posing a huge threat to marine life, contaminating and choking it in myriad ways.
Plastics have become a health hazard for animals who eat it from the roadside and waste dumps, these choke public drainage systems, water pipes, rivers, etc. The argument that lakhs of people will be rendered jobless due to the ban on the one-time-use plastic bags is superficial since it will generate employment in the small and cottage industry for bags from cloth, jute, even rough paper, etc. However, the municipal authorities in Mumbai ought to be restrained on slapping fines on violators in the initial period since nobody was fully prepared to make alternative arrangements. Consumer education must proceed apace with the stringent steps taken by the authorities to ban the toxic plastics.
