How biodegradable is that cloth bag your local shopkeeper handed out to you after the plastic ban came into force? Does it have any plastic content? These are some of the questions that a committee formed by Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) is examining after it emerged that many variants of “cloth” bags being circulated were in fact made of plastic.
The committee is scrutinising the percentage of plastic content in the various alternatives that have emerged in the market, including the popular polypropylene bags and paper cups that have a layer of plastic within to make them more sturdy.
Though many retail outlets, shopkeepers and hoteliers have shifted to other options such as paper and cloth bags since the ban came into force, not many of them are aware of polypropylene bags being sold in the guise of cloth bags.
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The committee, consisting also of experts from the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology, Mysuru, is expected to come out with a verdict on how plastic-free these “biodegradable” alternatives are. Significantly, some form of certification is likely to be proposed before such alternatives are allowed to be circulated in the market.
“The committee is also inspecting the effectiveness of the plastic ban apart from the alternatives available,” KSPCB Chairman Lakshman told The Hindu.
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Meanwhile, officials of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, which has been seizing plastic, said they had also been cracking the whip on these non-biodegradable options that are found everywhere. “The logic is simple … anything that is use-and-throw is plastic,” said a senior official.