Over a month since the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC)’s drive against plastic bags below 50 microns, the ultra-thin covers can still be seen everywhere, right from fruit vendors’ stalls to retail outlets of plastic disposables.
Mutton and chicken shops, which had been specially targeted during the drive, however, seem to follow the rule strictly, avoiding use of plastic bags less than prescribed thickness.
“We were asked to avoid plastic bags altogether, and urge customers to bring steel boxes. I am getting tired of telling them, but every consumer wants a plastic bag. So, we are getting covers with their thickness duly stamped on them,” said Baber, owner of Baber Chicken at MCH Market, Ameerpet.
Roadside vendors almost always use thin plastic bags, which are non-recyclable. “GHMC officials fined us ₹300 a month ago. But we have begun using them nevertheless, because customers cannot be sent back empty-handed,” says L. Krishna, a vegetable vendor in Chintal Basti.
Bags less than 50 microns in thickness cost less — a kilogram costs about ₹80 as compared to 50-plus microns that come for ₹150 per kg. Besides, the thinner the bags, the more one gets them per kg.
More worrisome is the fact that wafer-thin bags are packaged with the claim that they are over 50 microns, and the vendors have no way of confirming that.
“When officials crack down on us, they bring their equipment to measure the thickness. We cannot know the prescribed thickness otherwise. Is it fair to impose fine on us while allowing manufacturing of such bags?” says Domala Venkatesh, a fruit vendor in Dilsukhnagar.
GHMC had conducted raids on the manufacturing units, too, as part of the drive and confiscated tonnes of plastic bags, imposing penalties to the tune of lakhs of rupees.
However, the bags are not only available in retail shops, but are delivered to the vendors by individual salesmen on a daily basis.
Plastic waste management rules, framed by the Centre, ban the manufacture of plastic covers less than 50 microns in thickness.
The civic body had initiated the drive after a huge mass of plastic bags were found to be obstructing free flow of storm water during the recent spell of torrential rains. Roads and colonies were inundated due to reckless dumping of plastic stuff into the nalas and on roads.
Chief Medical and Sanitation Officer-GHMC B. Ganesh Babu said about eight to 10% of the 4,500 tonnes of garbage generated daily under GHMC area comprises plastic bags.
