Mumbai: Carrying a thin plastic bag could soon cost you Rs 5,000. Realising that the ban on thin plastic bags has not worked, the state government is making another attempt to ensure that plastic below 50 microns does not make its entry into everyday lives. The ban was implemented in 2005 after the July 26 floods wreaked havoc in the city. But the plastic menace continues, prompting the new proposal.
The target this time around are citizens who refuse to carry cloth bags while going shopping or prefer not to purchase thicker plastic as they are more expensive. The fine of Rs 5,000—which is now collected from a first-time defaulter such as a manufacturer, stockist, retailer, hawker or a restaurant owner—will apply to the ordinary citizen as well.
WHAT THE LAW SAYS
The Maharashtra Plastic Carry Bags (Manufacture and Usage) Rules 2006 specify that the minimum thickness of carry bags made of virgin or recycled plastic be 50 microns and that the size should not be less than 8x12 inches
A plastic bag less than 50 microns in size is lighter, flies easily and creates problems
It was the chief reason for the choking of drains in Mumbai on July 26, 2005
Being lighter, the littered bags do not motivate ragpickers to collect them since they have no value
Monday, March 9, 2009
Drilling into Antarctic ice for 'lost world'
It’s a quest for the “lost world”. In one of the boldest-ever missions, British scientists will drill through Antarctic ice in search of life forms hidden beneath the frozen layer for more than 400,000 years.
A team of Antarctic scientists has been given the go-ahead to drill through a two-mile-thick sheet of ice that has sealed a sub-glacial lake from the rest of the biosphere for at least as long as humans have walked the Earth, reports the Sunday Independent.
They hope to find species that have survived below the ice sheet since it formed between 400,000 and two million years ago. Finding life in such an extreme environment would be one of the most important discoveries of the century, raising the prospect of searching for extra-terrestrial life on Europa, a moon of Jupiter where life is thought to exist beneath a frozen ocean.
The scientists plan to use sophisticated ice-drilling technology developed in the UK to penetrate the ice cap and enter the liquid-water world of Lake Ellsworth in west Antarctica.
Lake Ellsworth is thought to be more than 300ft deep with a floor covered in thick sediment. The scientists who surveyed it believe it is a prime candidate for sub-glacial life.
“It is a dark, cold place that has been sealed from the outside world and it’s likely to contain unique forms of life,” Martin Siegert of Edinburgh University, the principal investigator on the Ellsworth project, was quoted by the British daily as saying.
The British team intends to break into Lake Ellsworth in the Antarctic summer of 2012-13 with a pair of scientific probes designed to capture living organisms, or the chemical signs of life. It will be the first time any nation has explored these mysterious sub-glacial lakes.
Technical problems have dogged a similar Russian project to penetrate a much bigger lake called Vostok in East Antarctica. A healthy competition between Russia and Britain has spurred each side in the race to be first to enter a sub-glacial lake.
If these microbes do exist, they would almost certainly have evolved in near-total isolation from the rest of life on Earth, and for such a length of time that they might now be markedly different from similar life forms found at the surface.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Thin plastic is killing ecology
Delhi is making an effort to ban plastic bags. Closer home, Karnataka made the same effort way back in 2002. Then the government had announced a ban on plastic bags thinner than 20 microns. A micron is one millionth of a metre.
The ban, however, has not achieved its objective. In any garbage bin, storm water drain or your neighbourhood store, thin, low-quality plastic bags are found in abundance, flouting the Environment Protection Act. One has the option of not using plastic bags, but many are fine with having a free bag while shopping.
Plastic waste management firms get bags that are thinner than 20 microns and in some case, 10 microns for recycling. Few people are aware that plastic bags and containers are banned from use in wedding halls and choultries in Bangalore. Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) had issued the order in 2002, but the rules have remained on paper. Such bags are also banned in Cubbon Park, Lalbagh and Bannerghatta. As per the order, thin plastic bags can't be used to print election material such as posters and flyers.
"The regulation is not being followed. I doubt people are aware of the regulation at all. There is no monitoring, and most of the plastic items we get for recycling are thin and of low quality, less than 10 microns," says Ahmed Khan, managing director of KK Waste Management.
Thick plastic covers are better because it's easier to collect them. "Plastic takes decades to degrade and releases carcinogens like furons and dioxins," he explained.
The KSPCB controls plastic production in Karnataka. As per the Environment Protection Act, manufacturers must be registered with KSPCB.
The Board has passed orders to close five manufacturing units in the last two years. The offenders are liable to be imprisoned up to five years and fined. All aspects of dealing with plastic bags in the city are under the jurisdiction of the district commissioner of Bangalore Urban and Rural.
KSPCB chairman H C Sharatchandra is optimistic about an umbrella ban on plastic bags in Karnataka: "It's possible. Himachal Pradesh has done it and now Delhi has imposed it. We must take the step."
IN CIRCULATION
* According to KK Waste Management, Bangalore generates 35 tonnes of plastic waste every day
* KSPCB reports show plastic products, mostly bags, constitute 6.2% of Bangalore's composite waste
* There are 290 registered manufacturing units from the state with KSPCB
* There are 16 plastic bag recyclers and 55 plastic product recyclers in the state
* There is no regular monitoring of rules on plastic usage
What happens when plastic is recycled
Plastic is recycled to make the original product -- plastic bags. The bag can be recycled seven to eight times, after which it can be used for road projects like the one KK Waste Management and BBMP are working on currently. Around 1,000 km have been completed with waste plastic in Bangalore.
The BBMP purchases plastic waste from K K Waste Management at Rs 27 per kg. The company pays rag-pickers Rs 6-12 per kg. This waste is mixed with other substances for roads; 30% of Bangalore's roads are laid with this mixture.
Suren, a young designer, uses plastic and tetrapacks to design accessories like bags, bottle-holders, pouches, wallets, jackets, etc. He recently bagged the PAN IIT award for his `Tetrapack waste' project.
The ban, however, has not achieved its objective. In any garbage bin, storm water drain or your neighbourhood store, thin, low-quality plastic bags are found in abundance, flouting the Environment Protection Act. One has the option of not using plastic bags, but many are fine with having a free bag while shopping.
Plastic waste management firms get bags that are thinner than 20 microns and in some case, 10 microns for recycling. Few people are aware that plastic bags and containers are banned from use in wedding halls and choultries in Bangalore. Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) had issued the order in 2002, but the rules have remained on paper. Such bags are also banned in Cubbon Park, Lalbagh and Bannerghatta. As per the order, thin plastic bags can't be used to print election material such as posters and flyers.
"The regulation is not being followed. I doubt people are aware of the regulation at all. There is no monitoring, and most of the plastic items we get for recycling are thin and of low quality, less than 10 microns," says Ahmed Khan, managing director of KK Waste Management.
Thick plastic covers are better because it's easier to collect them. "Plastic takes decades to degrade and releases carcinogens like furons and dioxins," he explained.
The KSPCB controls plastic production in Karnataka. As per the Environment Protection Act, manufacturers must be registered with KSPCB.
The Board has passed orders to close five manufacturing units in the last two years. The offenders are liable to be imprisoned up to five years and fined. All aspects of dealing with plastic bags in the city are under the jurisdiction of the district commissioner of Bangalore Urban and Rural.
KSPCB chairman H C Sharatchandra is optimistic about an umbrella ban on plastic bags in Karnataka: "It's possible. Himachal Pradesh has done it and now Delhi has imposed it. We must take the step."
IN CIRCULATION
* According to KK Waste Management, Bangalore generates 35 tonnes of plastic waste every day
* KSPCB reports show plastic products, mostly bags, constitute 6.2% of Bangalore's composite waste
* There are 290 registered manufacturing units from the state with KSPCB
* There are 16 plastic bag recyclers and 55 plastic product recyclers in the state
* There is no regular monitoring of rules on plastic usage
What happens when plastic is recycled
Plastic is recycled to make the original product -- plastic bags. The bag can be recycled seven to eight times, after which it can be used for road projects like the one KK Waste Management and BBMP are working on currently. Around 1,000 km have been completed with waste plastic in Bangalore.
The BBMP purchases plastic waste from K K Waste Management at Rs 27 per kg. The company pays rag-pickers Rs 6-12 per kg. This waste is mixed with other substances for roads; 30% of Bangalore's roads are laid with this mixture.
Suren, a young designer, uses plastic and tetrapacks to design accessories like bags, bottle-holders, pouches, wallets, jackets, etc. He recently bagged the PAN IIT award for his `Tetrapack waste' project.
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