Delhi Latest To Ban Plastic Bags: Five Years In Prison For Waste?

Treehugger.com:

New Delhi has banned the use of plastic bags in all shops, starting very soon. Notification has been sent out to all shopkeepers, and they are being given 10 to 12 days to fall into line. After that, traders will have to pay a penalty or spend five years in prison (what!). That's the new law that the Delhi government says it is ready to enforce. Civil servants said that punitive measures were needed after another law prohibiting plastic bags was ignored. However they do accept that the new ban will have to be implemented slowly.

This will be a huge change for this city of 16M people. Now residents use more than 10 M every day in the capital. The streets are littered with them and they clog up sewage pipes and are breeding grounds for malaria and dengue fever. Traders are being told to use jute, paper and cloth instead. However in a nation of small shops, the carry bag might turn out to be more expensive than the goods being sold.

Read the whole story: Treehugger.com

Comments

[research]

I don't use plastic trash bags, the downside is the trash pick up folks frequently spill stuff.

[Otaku1031]

While I agree that the penalty is ridiculous, it will draw attention to the disaster that discarded plastic has caused. Have you done any inquiry into the enormous "island" of plastic shreds that is located near the center of the Pacific Ocean gyre? It's roughly the size of Texas, and is made up of trash, mostly plastics. These shreds are eaten by fish and birds, which then starve due to impaired digestive function.

Frequently the only way way to get attention for issues like this are to enact laws that have high penalties for violators. Once the laws are in place the penalties can be amended to a more enforceable level, but sometimes it takes a hammer to get some action out of an "out of sight, out of mind" population of consumers who value throwaway convenience over good environmental sense.

And while I, too, am disgusted by a lack of accountability for pols who willingly lie to their constituents, let's try to stay on topic.

[timezone]

I completely agree, Otaku. Very little changes without first getting people's attention and showing it will affect them directly. I was a child when the stiffer penalties for littering got "teeth" and people were fined heavily for throwing litter out of their cars. It's amazing the dramatic effect that had on cleaning up our highways. I hope stiffer penalties on using products harmful to the environment will have the same positive effect.

[Otaku1031]

BTW, I read that PETA is mounting a campaign to save the lives of "sea kittens" (fish). They'll be spouting the evils of fish sticks to the grade school crowd to make their misguided points. The plastic pollution in the world's oceans is beyond critical. If PETA wants to "save the sea kittens", let them start with throwing some serious time and money at the problems that are killing the seas. I don't care how many "sea kittens" they manage to save, it's all for nothing if they don't have a clean home to live in. One day we're going to look around us and realize that there are no fish alive, anywhere. As goes the oceans, so goes life on this planet.

[watchingthings]

Putting in absurd laws is wrong. 5 years jail for plastic bags.......how much for lying. Politicians being politicians tend to lie alot. Will they give themselves jail time for lying to their constituents? Ridiculous! Stupidity at it's peak! Do they not have important issues to attend to?