‘We Must Examine Ban Or Order Efficient Retrieval’
Dhananjay Mahapatra TNN
New Delhi: Excessive use of plastic bags and their unregulated disposal has been choking lakes, ponds and urban sewerage systems, the Supreme Court said on Monday while warning that it posed a threat more serious than the atom bomb for the next generation.
This observation from a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya came on a PIL filed by two Andhra Pradesh-based NGOs drawing the court’s attention to 30-60 kg of plastic bags recovered from the stomachs of cows because of irresponsible disposal of plastic bags and defunct municipal waste collection system.
The court issued notice to the Centre and state governments on the PIL seeking ban on use of plastic bags in municipal areas which did not have a prompt garbage collection, segregation and disposal system. The NGOs said absence of prompt garbage collection, segregation and disposal system allowed cows to rummage through garbage bins and eat foodstuff disposed of in plastic bags, which get stuck in their stomach.
But the bench wanted to address the larger questions arising from indiscriminate use of plastic bags, which not only posed a grave threat to nature and environment but also to the human race itself. It suggested that the petitioner make the manufacturers and a television channel, which has been running a campaign against use of plastic, parties to the PIL for a wider scrutiny of the important issue.
“All of us are watching how our lakes, ponds and urban sewerage systems are getting choked by plastic bags. We want to expand the scope of this petition. Unless we examine a total ban on plastic bags or put in place a system for manufacturers mandating them to collect back all plastic bags, the next generation will be threatened with something more serious than the atom bomb,” Justices Singhvi and Mukhopadhaya said.
The court drew the petitioner’s attention to large quantities of water packed in plastic pouches, which were thrown around in undisciplined and uncivil manner across the country every day. “A rough estimate shows more than 100 million water pouches are thrown all over the cities and towns,” the bench said.
Appearing for NGOs Karuna Society for Animal and Nature and Visakha Society for Protection and Care of Animals, senior advocate Shyam Divan said the problem was more acute in urban areas where people had a habit of disposing leftover food in plastic bags in municipal bins.
“Due to government neglect across the country, animals particularly cows and bulls are ingesting plastic from garbage dumps and plastic bags are littered across the landscape and oceans. The ingestion of plastic bags chokes the stomach of cows and up to 60 kg of plastic bags were found in the stomachs of cows. What appears to be a healthy cow is in fact a plastic-choked cow or a cow full of plastic,” Divan said. “Apart from the plastic completely choking the digestive system of the cow and causing excruciating pain to the animal, plastic residues enter the human food chain through dairy and animal products,” he added.
Divan said plastic bags were increasingly posing a grave threat to wildlife too. “Along India’s rivers and coastline, plastic waste and garbage is dumped from thousands of villages and towns into the water along with untreated sewage. The garbage including plastic waste is found by wild animals and is ingested by them,” he said.
“Turtles are highly susceptible to swallowing plastic bags as they strongly resemble their target prey – jellyfish and squid. In the course of sea turtle protection work, Pradeep Nath, one of the petitioners along with the NGOs, found that post-mortem conducted on dead turtles showed plastic waste in their stomachs,” Divan added.
CASE AGAINST PLASTIC
Prohibit or phase out in a time-bound manner open garbage disposal system and remove open garbage receptacles
Implement door-to-door garbage collection and prevent animals from moving around garbage storage facilities
Municipalities must segregate all plastic waste from other waste
States must issue directions
prohibiting use, sale and disposal of plastic bags in all municipal areas
Provide animal shelters and treat cows and other animals suffering from stomach ailments due to ingestion of plastic
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