The government in an effort to discourage the use of plastic has introduced a rule whereby the shoppers shall be charged for the plastic carry bags. Now from every small shopkeeper to a mall, during billing you will be asked 'do you need a carry bag?' I am thin king what else shall I do carry the stuff on my head? And then as you say yes, they shall tell you 'Sir another 3/5/6/7 rupees', depending upon the size of the bag. Another few bucks may not be difficult for you to pay but does it solve the problem.
Principally the initiative sounds so green but in reality its is another eyewash. here is why:
1. I am supposed to carry my own shopping bag. Seldom shopping is a planned activity and hence it is most likely that shoppers will end -up without bags. Besides if you carry a bag inside a mall they shall frisk you, then inside the mall when you try to enter the hyper mart they shall ask you to leave your bag at the baggage counter.
2. Penalising use of plastic bags is fine but what about insisting that shops should have jute or paper versions. They shall never do that. Instead they will keep only plastic bags and then charge the customer for the sane. This way they can pass additional cost burden on the customer. As a customer I should have the right to demand jute, paper or some other so-called environment-friendly carry-bag version. And if the shop keeper fails to provide so then I must not be charged for a plastic bag. After all the idea should not have been to charge people for using plastic bags, it should have been to provide them with better alternatives.
3. Besides while banning plastic bags, the government should have banned all plastic materials. But that does not happen. Besides the filth and muck that people in general have to encounter on street corners and pavements is unimaginable.
So What?
The moral of the story is very simple. Solutions should never be problem in themselves. They shall always be when they have been devised as a way to avoid the problem and not solve it.
Organizations must also take lessons from the same. Passing-the-buck and avoidance of the real problem will never help. Real problems must be faced and broad-spectrum solutions must be developed. Such solutions shall always be engaging.
5 comments:
Organisations who charge a high margin or the premium stores such as Levis, Tommy Hilfiger have started using paper/recycle bags... Here also environmentalists have a problem stating that more paper bags will lead to more cutting of trees..Hence neither these retailers can use plastic bags nor paper bags.. Even if customers want to carry jute bags or normal bags like Tier 2 city customers who carry while purchasing vegetables then also these retailers demand to leave the bags in the counter.. What a dilemma..:(
There is no dilemma Dev, actually what you say crossed my mind too. Then what do you call environment-friendly? I have always felt that all this environment cries are a huge hogwash and instruments to fool people. But we in general feel good to buy this crap and then think we are part of a global movement.
The truth is that -
a) Plastic has been one of the greatest innovation till date. Where is another light, portable and strong and cheap option to carry your stuff?
b) All great scientists put together could not create any material after plastic taking out its non-disposablity and making it bio-degradable.
I have no problem if customers are penalized for using plastic bags (if they cannot be provided with better alternatives) but every shop that keeps these bags as a bait for the customers must also be charged extra and also the government for allowing shopkeeprs to keep plastic bags. Will that happen? You bet, never ever.
However mera bharat mahaan...
Cheers,
Debashish
He He!!! What u said is absolutely fact..No doubt about it.
Some statutory law should be passed to stop this now.
Many organizations are using paper bags like Woodland, Levis, Mc Donald’s etc. but that is more costly and not feasible for all the shops to offer that or take prices from customer. Government has banned the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags and allowed the use of biodegradable plastic bags which is better for our environment, but these plastic bags comes at high cost compared to the previously used plastic bags, so shopkeepers have to charge it from customers because they can’t bear that cost as that is high. There are shops which are using jute bags like Bon Viont (gourmet food store) in Dollars colony, Bangalore but till now it has not been extensively used in market.
The solution for this problem according to me is - like in retail shop anyone can carry their own bags, the main problem as you mentioned is in malls, which can be resolved by buying one medium or big plastic bag from one store and use that bag for that day’s shopping. I have personally experienced both the cases and applied the same.
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