Passers-by and motorists could not help but pause for a moment and observe the little set-up beside the Saphalyam Complex at Palayam in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday morning. A slightly crooked tree, with not a shade of green, but strung entirely with newspaper bags and christened, ‘Bag Tree,’ volunteers scurrying about with bundles of paper bags, and a simple khadi, patch-worked banner reading ‘Thanal.’ The environmental research organisation distributed 3,000 paper bags at the busy junction, in the hope that more will take up the cause and say ‘no’ to plastic bags, an easily replaceable form of plastic, according to them.
September 25 was chosen to organise the programme as it is observed as Global Day of Action.
The ‘Bag Tree’ initiative is being supported by the Zero Waste Centre, Kovalam, a resource and training group. The initiative has a number of positives for it is environmentally favourable and economically beneficial, besides contributing to a far healthier society, according to Thanal executive director S. Usha.
“It may take months, but it is high time society changed its habits and mind-sets and disciplined itself to make use of such alternatives,” she said. She said that in the wake of the garbage management crisis faced by the city, residents and organisations such as residents’ associations should take a proactive role to promote such alternatives.
She said that statics revealed that each family utilised and disposed nearly 560 plastic carry bags annually, which translated roughly to 370 crores a year. The event was inaugurated by handing over a pile of paper bags to a fruit vendor at the junction.
The volunteers also distributed pamphlets. Booklets on ‘pot-composting’ by Shibu K. Nair were also on sale.
Keywords: Bag Tree, paper bags, plastic bags
Government is not considering other short life plastic products such
as plastic using for packaging of eatables, beverages and milk which
also play importance role in creating plastic pollution.
The only problem with plastic bags is that they can lie or float
around for decades in the environment, but this problem has now been
solved. There is a new type of plastic called d2w which can be made
by factories in India using an additive supplied by a UK company
called Symphony Environmental. There is little or no extra cost and
no loss of jobs, and at the end of its useful life a d2w bag converts
into a biodegradable material. Life-cycle Assessments by Intertek in
2011 and 2012 put the environmental credentials of d2w plastic ahead
of conventional plastic, bio-based plastic, paper, and cotton bags.
The Government of India should do what the United Arab Emirates have
done, and require all short-life plastic (not just shopping bags) to
be made with d2w.
We cannot use paper bags as an alternative to plastic bags because of
below mentioned reasons:
1. Paper bag production use and disposal results in 3.3 times the
greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to HDPE plastic bags.
2. A stack of 1000 new plastic carrier bags would be around 2 inches
high, but a stack of 1000 new paper grocery bags could be around 2
feet high. It would take at least seven times the number of trucks to
deliver the same number of bags, creating seven times more transport
pollution and road congestion.
3. Paper bags cannot normally be re-used, and will disintegrate if
wet.
4. The disposal of ash from paper production also has an impact on
eutrophication and fresh water aquatic eco-toxicity.
5. The production of palm oil for use in paper manufacture affects
terrestrial eco-toxicity.
Therefore, it is unlikely to use paper bag regularly due to its low
durability.
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