CHENNAI, India — Amul Vasudevan, a vegetable vendor in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, thought he was going out of business.
The state had banned retailers from using single-use plastic bags. Disposable plastic bags were an essential part of her life because they were so cheap. She couldn’t afford to switch to selling items in reusable cloth bags.
Tamil Nadu was not the first state in India to try to reduce plastic pollution, but unlike other states, it has been relentless in enforcing the law. Vasudevan has been repeatedly fined for using disposable bags.
Three years after the ban went into effect, Vasudevan’s plastic bag use has dropped by more than two-thirds. Most of her customers bring cloth bags. Many streets in this state of more than 80 million people are virtually free of plastic waste.
But Tamil Nadu’s ban has been far from a complete success. Provides lessons for the rest of India.
“Plastic bags can only be eliminated if the customer decides, not the seller,” said Vasudevan from a stall on Muthu Road in Chennai. “Getting rid of it is a slow process. It doesn’t happen overnight.”
Large cities and villages in India are entwined with single-use plastics in their daily lives and are considered one of the worst environmental hazards. All types of purchases are taken home in disposable bags, and food is served on disposable plates and trays. The country is the world’s third largest producer of single-use plastic waste, after China and the United States.
But now Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has banned some of the ubiquitous items such as disposable cups, plates, cutlery, straws and ear swabs. Reusable bags are allowed. The ban does not include soda bottles or plastic packaging for potato chips and other snacks.
India follows the likes of Bangladesh, the European Union and China in making massive efforts to reduce plastic waste. But experts say the company’s plan, which targets the entire supply chain of single-use plastics, from manufacturing to use, is the most ambitious.
It will be interesting to see how much effort the authorities put into enforcing the new law.
“Unless local governments take tough action against violators and build partnerships with the people, it will be very difficult to implement blanket bans,” said an advocacy group focused on waste management. said Ravi Agarwal, who heads Toxics Link. “Otherwise, there will be sporadic fines here and there and press reports.”
Last year, the federal government banned very thin plastic bags, but enforcement was left up to local governments and was not strict. It states that it will involve the public to be able to report offenders and their locations.
Another major reason for Tamil Nadu’s relative success is public pressure on politicians (for example, to fix plastic drains and sewage blockages).
On a recent Friday morning, plainclothes police marched through Muthu Street looking for the perpetrators. Near a street selling vegetables and jasmine flowers, I spotted a street vendor packing produce into disposable bags for customers. Police fined the vendor, seized dozens of pounds of contraband from others, fined him, and threatened him with jail time.
Since December 2019, state officials have collected more than $1.3 million in fines. The smallest one is about $7. But the work is never finished. Some vendors have resumed using the banned bags after police officers dispersed on Muthu Street that day.
“We have to find a cheap solution to stop using plastic bags,” said Vasudevan, who was not fined that day. “The rich understand what is at stake, but the government must make cloth bags cheaply for the poor.”
Tamil Nadu is trying to address the issue with subsidies and campaigns promoting cloth bags.
At the entrance of the Koyembedu wholesale market in Chennai, authorities have set up two vending machines with a capacity of 800 cloth bags. The machine he refills twice a day. While the ban has undoubtedly hurt the lives of those involved in making and selling single-use plastics, it has benefited others.
In the village of Nemum, about 25 miles west of Chennai, about 20 seamstresses churn out fabric bags to Bollywood music. As a member of the cooperative, we were able to increase our income by making more bags.
“We are producing more cloth bags than ever before,” said Deepika Sarvanan, head of a local women-only self-help group initially funded by the government. “We don’t even produce 0.1% of demand.”
However, some companies, such as those that sell live fish, find it difficult to replace plastic. “No one wants to destroy the environment,” said Mageesh Kumar, who sells pet fish at Chennai’s Kolasar Market. “But if you don’t sell it in plastic, there’s no other way. How are you going to feed your family?”
For now, Kumar and his associates use thicker bags that they ask customers to return.
Still, Tamil Nadu has made more progress than other states trying to reduce plastic use. Many residents diligently collect plastics and separate their waste for recycling.
State pioneers banned single-use plastics in 2000 in Nilgiri, a district popular with tourists for its hill towns and tea plantations. Led. She noticed air pollution after seeing a picture of a bison corpse and a plastic bag in its stomach. She launched a public awareness campaign.
“We made people understand that if we want tourism to survive, we have to stop using plastic,” said Sahu, now a state-level environmental official. “Government-led programs only succeed when they become citizen movements.”
On a recent humid afternoon, the Koembedu market was showing signs of success. Only two of his more than 20 stores sold flowers packed in plastic.
“We’ve been selling flowers wrapped in newspaper for years,” said flower vendor Richard Edison.