You will find plastic bags floating all over our city but I say it's time we said "bye-bye" to plastic bags. Our city of Calcutta (or Kolkata) is a bit late on this important issue but recently plastic bags weighing 20 microns or less have been banned in the state of West Bengal. Three Cheers to whoever passed such legislation - Now let's all act to change the attitude of citizens starting with us! There are places like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Goa which have banned it long ago and people are making big efforts to bag the bags for good! Calcutta can clean up its act too!
"Why ban plastic bags?" you may ask ... here's a list of important reasons:
1) Most bags are made from high density polythene (HDPE). Polythene is made from propane and butane better known as liquid petroleum gas (LPCO). This is a precious and expensive commodity. Think about it: Sometimes we use a bag, made from this precious material, for only about 5-10 minutes to get our items homeŠthen, the bag becomes wasteŠhow sad.
2) HDPE plastic bags are non-biodegradable (never go back into the earth naturally), adding to our already monstrous landfill and litter problems.
3) Plastic bags have found their ways into soil layers, rivers and oceans. They are choking pipes, preventing water to percolate, resulting in the lowering of already dull water level, They also put chemicals in the soil as they sit there, and deteriorate soil fertility by remaining in the soil for years.
4) Domestic animals such as cows and goats, which still roam freely on the streets in our city, die by consuming huge amounts of plastic bags from rubbish heaps. Post-mortem of cows in the cities have found their stomachs with as much as 110 pounds of plastic. The animals die a slow, painful death from convulsions, a recent government study revealed.
5) Also in our oceans nearly 46000 pieces of plastic float in every sq. mile thus creating water pollution and killing the sea birds, sea mammals and countless fish each year. Turtles, dolphins and killer whales mistake plastic bags for fish and die of intestinal blockage. Then if any person eats the fish the plastic poison is transferred to his/her body causing awful pains in the intestines.
I think you can see why plastic is harmful to mankind, animals and the environment. Although it may be hard to completely stop using plastics forever starting tomorrow, it isn't difficult to greatly reduce our reliance on plastics little by little. Here are some easy suggestions for starting to be "plastically aware!"
1) You can always keep a cloth carry bag with you so that if you buy something you can refuse a bag from the shop. (You can even carry some used plastic bags and refuse new ones).
2) You can line your garbage can with two sheets of newspaper instead of a plastic bag.
3) You can pick up plastic bags you see on the street to clean up the area and to make sure they are disposed of in the proper place.
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Front cover
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