Rwanda also has this policy, since 2008, and they enforce it. The country is very clean, it looks different than other African countries (and countries like the US), just because there is no plastic rubbish everywhere. I think this is a very good policy, and would welcome it at home.<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/15/rwanda-banned-plastic-bags-so-can-we" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/15/rwanda...</a>
Note: Thank you for down voting for pointing out a glaring 'fake statistics' and poor journalism, on a #1 trending post on HN.<p>The first and the second quote do not mean the same thing, not even close.<p>"A massive 60%t of the plastic waste in the oceans is said to have come from India, according to the Times of India."<p>The TOI reads - "Banning disposable plastic is a huge step for the capital and the country because India is among the top four biggest plastic polluters in the world, responsible for around 60% of the 8.8 million tons of plastic that is dumped into the world’s oceans every year."<p>As an Indian, I see a lot of journalists stuck in a colonial era. They go out of their way to tarnish and stereotype the great unwashed. They manage to turn even positive news to mock and heckle the less developed world.<p>But this article has taken it to great heights. The TOI isn't exactly known for journalistic integrity and often conveniently pulls statistics from their backside. But to misquote the devil, this article has certainly hit the lowest level.
I do not see any coverage in Indian media. Could it be one of those official notifications which public at large hardly follows but it breeds corruption by enforcement officials. Though looking at Indian papers I came across this rather frightening news:<p><a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollution/india-tops-list-of-countries-in-ozone-pollution-deaths/articleshow/57156322.cms" rel="nofollow">http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollutio...</a>
This is India. Starving, thirsty, injured (hit by cars and trucks) cows and dogs roam the streets, hobbling along, limping along. There are people starving on the street-side. The poorest children are openly prostituted on the streets.<p>How are they going to enforce a rule regarding plastic bags?<p>The rich will continue to do whatever they want.<p>The middle-classes will continue to do whatever they can get away with.<p>The poor will continue to be shit on and abused.<p>------------<p>About 20 years ago they banned smoking in public in Delhi (I was there when they did it).<p>All that this ordinance did was to give the police yet another angle to harass people. More corruption. More bribes.
This is great news! I have a question maybe someone from Delhi could answer, the article states:<p>"The ban took effect on the first day of 2017."<p>What are the vendors doing? Is water being sold in glass bottles with a deposit scheme for redemption now?
I wish that they could find a way to do this in the Islamabad/Rawalpindi area. Due to a lack of budget and government coordination for large scale trash pick up, nearly every stream and ravine in the area is the designated trash dumping grounds. It's thoroughly littered with plastic shopping bags and plastic bottles. It won't solve the problem of people throwing trash on nearly any available piece of unclaimed or unusable land, but at least it'll be paper based or biodegradable.
This is awesome. When I was in India ten years ago, everywhere we went in rural India the trees along creeks, rivers and streams were littered with plastic bags from where floods had deposited them. They were like leaves, and the trees were dead. They had already banned plastic bags locally in that province, and it is good to see a global ban on plastic in general.<p>In Himachal Pradesh, the plastic bag ban had resulted in a cottage industry forming where discarded newspapers were folded/glued into shopping bags. I'd like to see this same thing happen in the US. A friend imported a palette of these bags to Florida, and he was able to sell them to vendors and make a small profit. This tells me they might be viable here commercially.<p>As they say, reduce > <i>re-use</i> > recycle.
If you are not using reusable bags when going to the grocery store (or any store) please attempt to try it.<p>It absolutely amazing how many more groceries you can put in a reusable bag over a plastic or paper bags. So at the bare minimum it is an optimization (less trips from car to kitchen).<p>When I bring this up with people I get unbelievable false rationalization like: I reuse the bags for trash or the reusable bags take 100x to make over plastic bags.<p>Plastic grocery bags have knack of flying into lakes, rivers and streams. I have saved many turtles and fish a long the Charles river that are caught in these bags. I have never seen a kitchen trash bag or a reusable bag in the river.<p>Many grocery stores even give a discount if you use reusable bags not to mention reusable bags are extremely cheap (I don't think I have ever paid more than $2).
When it comes to banning plastic bags, India takes the lead & not just Delhi; cities like Mumbai, Karwar, Tirumala, Vasco, Rajasthan all have a ban on the bag though enforcement is questionable. Where as rural villages such as 'Mawlynnong' has not only banned the plastic bags but also got the title of 'Asia's cleanest village', there are other such villages in India. It should be commended that, villages which hosts majority of population with lower economic backgrounds are doing their part to protect their environment even when it's much difficult for them to do so than their counterparts in the cities who usually don't need to worry about whether their children get to eat today.
All too often it seems US restaurants do the quick calculus of going 100% disposable cutelry/etc, making a decision we'll still be dealing with 50 years from now....<p>I am very supportive of these types programs, even if hard to enforce.
Passing a rule is very easy in India as opposed to the enforcement or people following that. However in this case majority of the source are commercial outlets which is relatively less difficult to enforce .
Various forms of plastic bans keep getting imposed year after year in different places in India.<p>Nothing practically happens because:<p>a. Police has better things to do than round up people and shops carrying plastic bags. They may probably take a bribe from the shop to turn a blind eye.<p>b. There's no really low cost and convenient alternative in many cases - in spite of a lot of shops in India using recycled newspapers for packaging.<p>Home delivery which is widespread among the richer classes is at least partially helpful since shops bring things in their own bags. However most of India is not rich
What are they going to replace plastic with ? Can you invent a kind of material that is as capable as plastic but has zero negative effects on the environment ?
It is also banned in Lucknow, a beautiful city in Indian state Uttar Pradesh.It is a good move.Although govt. should invest more in R&D in order to find environment friendly alternative.Street food sellers who deal in liquid edibles had to raise their prices in order to use current plastic alternatives which are currently clay and glass.
Here in California single use plastic bags are banned. Now it's a pain, at checkout you either have to tell them how many multiuse bags to charge or bring bags from home.<p>No so many years ago paper bags were common and what I used. Paper is great, it's biodegradable, renewable, and convenient.
Good in principle, will cause hardships for many in practice. There are probably millions of street vendors who rely on plastic to pack food to go, as well as many other shops of course.<p>There are many other priorities to focus on which can have a far bigger impact.
Three questions: 1) what will replace plastic for convenience products ( aka single serving consumables )? 2) are there organizations championing this effort elsewhere? 3) where can i read more facts about Delhi's efforts?
I don't see this being implemented. At least none of the friends and family have reported this is being implemented. Folks from India - anyone have a different feedback and they heard this is really being implemented?
Let's just hope that this is implemented in an ordered way. We all remember what happened to Delhi in the last Diwali celebration even after having so much of law against firecrackers.
I don't understand how we can build self-driving cars, send people to the moon, and create advanced facial recognition software, but can't build technology that can separate plastic bags?
The economist inside me says it would be better to tax disposable plastic.<p>The tax could cover the cost to clean up the litter. That would create jobs in three ways: 1) plastic clean-up jobs, 2) businesses and economic activity that desperately need disposable plastic can still possibly survive, and ) jobs making disposable plastic.<p>Anyways, it's a lot better than taxing things we all agree we want more of. Like jobs.
Not a huge fan of outright bans, and think this is probably the wrong priority for India to focus on. (I understand this is just Delhi)<p>Air pollution is huge right now. And sad to say, people pooping in streets and rivers is still a major problem.<p>To me, plastic remnants are a very minor issue in comparison.
Can we get the title changed to make it clear that India banned plastic in Delhi not all of India.<p>Also the title says "literally all disposable plastic" then in the article it says applies to cups, bags, cutlery.
Plastic is the least of Delhi's problems. First they should be banning vehicles that don't meet emission standards. I visited there twice and I'll be lucky if I don't come down with some lung problem.<p>Edit:
They should ban the burning of plastic, not plastic itself. And enforce it.
It's great. But the 'trash problem' in India runs deeper.<p>They need to have anti-litter regulation, awareness campaigns, and enforcement.