Violations galore on Day 1 of single-use plastic ban 

 Colourful plastic festoons dot city squares; traders await official communication 

The first day of the nationwide ban on 17 single-use plastic items saw zero-impact in Hyderabad. The city squares were festooned with thin, colourful plastic flags that were explicitly banned under the new regulation.

At the biggest wholesale market for plastic products in the city in Begum Bazar, it was business as usual. “ Chal raha hai. We are not affected,” said the owner of Maharaja Polymers while juggling calls on two phones as workers carted bags of plastic material from inside the shop in Begum Bazar area. Dozens of shops line the area near Begum Bazar Fish Market and some of them have manufacturing facilities in the Katedan area.

“This shop is small, but nearly 100 people survive on this. The men who cart the bags, the men who transport the material, the workers in the factory and the salespeople, and there are countless other people dependent on this business,” said Sudhakar, who has been trading in plastic bags of all sizes for the past 22 years. “We deal with bags thicker than 75 microns and will move to 125 microns from January,” he said.

“I learned about the ban from newspapers. It will take a week to learn about the seriousness of the ban,” said the owner of Sri Jain Enterprises, which deals with plastic cutlery and disposable materials that come under the ambit of the 17 banned single-use plastic items. All the traders shared that they had no direct communication from either the pollution control board or the civic body about the ban.

“We deal with bags used in plant nurseries and their thickness is over 300 microns. We are not affected. As long as the industries in Katedan are functioning, we will have regular supply of all plastic material,” said Vishnu, who has a small-scale unit near Sapna Theatre in Katedan.

India’s polymer production has risen from 7,50,90,00 tonnes to 12,40,40,00 tonnes between 2012 and 2020 — an increase of 65.18% in a span of eight years. In addition, India has imported 3,43,00,00 tonnes of polymer compounds during the same period.

“Capacity building workshops are being organised for MSME units to provide them technical assistance for manufacturing of alternatives to banned single-use plastic items,” said a prepared statement by pollution control board.