Study finds limited impact of single-use plastics ban in T.N.

Study by CAG finds vendors in Tamil Nadu continue to use single-use plastics despite awareness, citing customer demand.

Despite a reasonable level of awareness about the single-use plastics (SUP) ban in Tamil Nadu, most vendors across districts continue to use SUP bags for packaging their products, primarily citing customer requests as the main reason, finds a study by Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG). 

A report evaluating the efficacy of the State government’s Meendum Manjappai campaign was released on Thursday, August 1, 2024 at the inauguration of Climate Action Month 2024 — a month-long campaign by the CAG to raise awareness on environmental conservation and climate change among the public — in the presence of P. Senthil Kumar, Principal Secretary to Departments of Environment, Climate Change and Forests, Rahul Nadh, Director, Department of Environment, G. Sundararajan, Coordinator, Poovulagin Nanbargal, and S. Saroja, Executive Director of CAG.

The study done by Madhuvanthi Rajkumar, researcher, CAG, had two main components — first, a baseline assessment of public perception about the Meendum Manjappai campaign, which involved 823 respondents; and second, a survey examining market vendors’ attitudes towards SUP bags and their alternatives, involving 809 respondents. 

The research was conducted across eight districts namely Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruchi, Madurai, Theni, Perambalur, Nagapattinam, and Kanniyakumari.

‘Alternatives costly’

In the baseline public perception study, as much as 94% of respondents expressed a willingness to avoid SUP and use alternative materials. However, those who were hesitant to make the switch cited several concerns such as the high cost of alternatives, their limited availability in the market, their shorter lifespan, their tendency to break easily, and the lack of variety in design options.

Meanwhile, 85% of vendors still pack their products in SUP bags. They cited several reasons for using SUP bags — customers request them, they are commonly used by other vendors in the market, SUP bags are readily available, alternatives are costly, the nature of the products often necessitates SUP bags, and SUP bags are cost-effective.