
India has banned disposable plastic in Delhi - SimplyUseless
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/india-bans-all-disposable-plastic/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_content=global&utm_campaign=general-content&linkId=34447287
======
Maarten88
Rwanda also has this policy, since 2008, and they enforce it. The country is
very clean, it looks different than other African countries (and countries
like the US), just because there is no plastic rubbish everywhere. I think
this is a very good policy, and would welcome it at home.

[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/15/rwanda...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/15/rwanda-
banned-plastic-bags-so-can-we)

~~~
WalterBright
My father told me that American highways used to be lined with trash until it
was made illegal to throw trash out the window.

~~~
Kluny
There was this scene in Mad Men where Don Draper, Betty Draper and the kids go
out for a picnic in the new family car. They eat lunch in a grassy field, then
when they're done, they pack up their basket and blanket, leaving the beer
cans, food wrappers, empty bottles, plastic cutlery, and chicken bones
scattered on the grass.

That scene shocked and horrified me more than all the sexism, racism, and
homophobia combined.

Edit: saw the other comments, looks like I wasn't the only one affected by
that scene.

~~~
greggman
That still happens in America. See pictures of Washington DC the day after 4th
of July. Or Golden Gate Park in SF after a big festival. So many people leave
their trash looks it like a dump.

Compare to say Cherry Blossom watching in Japan where a large park will be
entirely covered in people but when it's over they will have all cleaned it
up.

It's a cultural issue. I have no idea how to influence western cultures to
care as much. I've see similar things in most European countries (trashing
places).

~~~
hollander
With big festivals with thousands of people gathering in park or square, you
can expect this in Europe. Problem is that you buy a drink in a plastic cup or
bottle, maybe a sandwhich or fries with it, and you need to dispose of the
plastic or paper. Where do you leave it? There simply are not enough trash
cans around or nearby. In a big crowded place it's not easy to move around,
you can get lost etc. So people throw their garbage on the ground. By the way,
all available trash cans are full and have a pile load of garbage next to
them. So even if they are full, people still use them to keep the trash
together.

I don't see the problem here. Afterwards cleaners come and clean the square,
streets, whatever. It's part of the game.

On normal days, people here keep the cities, parks and streets rather clean.

~~~
buzzybee
I remember noticing a more deliberate approach to trash in European cities
when I visited. Not just throwing it anywhere but setting used cans etc. in
the corner, out of the way.

~~~
ginko
There's a deposit on cans and bottles in many places in Europe, so they're
left where homeless people may find them.

------
bendermon
Note: Thank you for down voting for pointing out a glaring 'fake statistics'
and poor journalism, on a #1 trending post on HN.

The first and the second quote do not mean the same thing, not even close.

"A massive 60%t of the plastic waste in the oceans is said to have come from
India, according to the Times of India."

The TOI reads - "Banning disposable plastic is a huge step for the capital and
the country because India is among the top four biggest plastic polluters in
the world, responsible for around 60% of the 8.8 million tons of plastic that
is dumped into the world’s oceans every year."

As an Indian, I see a lot of journalists stuck in a colonial era. They go out
of their way to tarnish and stereotype the great unwashed. They manage to turn
even positive news to mock and heckle the less developed world.

But this article has taken it to great heights. The TOI isn't exactly known
for journalistic integrity and often conveniently pulls statistics from their
backside. But to misquote the devil, this article has certainly hit the lowest
level.

~~~
masonic
Is their claim factually incorrect?

~~~
zacketysack3
I think it might actually be factually incorrect. I looked up the Times Of
India article that OP's article was referring to [1], and could not find a
source on the biggest plastic polluters in the world.

Then, after searching around, the articles [2] and reports [3] that I found
all put Indonesia (not India) in the top 5 polluters in the world. They refer
to an authoritative source from Science [4], but I'm not able to access this
due to the paywall.

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. Surely the Times of India hasn't confused
"Indonesia" for "India", right?

[1] [http://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/all-forms-of-
disposable...](http://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/all-forms-of-disposable-
plastic-banned-in-delhi-ncr-270237.html)

[2] [http://www.audubon.org/news/these-5-countries-are-biggest-
pl...](http://www.audubon.org/news/these-5-countries-are-biggest-plastic-
polluters)

[3] PDF! [http://www.oceanconservancy.org/our-work/marine-
debris/mckin...](http://www.oceanconservancy.org/our-work/marine-
debris/mckinsey-report-files/full-report-stemming-the.pdf)

[4]
[http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768](http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768)

~~~
Normal_gaussian
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub)

------
geodel
I do not see any coverage in Indian media. Could it be one of those official
notifications which public at large hardly follows but it breeds corruption by
enforcement officials. Though looking at Indian papers I came across this
rather frightening news:

[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollutio...](http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollution/india-
tops-list-of-countries-in-ozone-pollution-deaths/articleshow/57156322.cms)

~~~
tn13
That is how India rolls. I am not sure how the poor street food vendors
survive if they cant use plastic plates and spoons. If they are forced to use
steel plates and spoons that is a health and safety nightmare in India.

~~~
bendermon
There are plenty of cost effective traditional alternatives. Banana leaves,
hand made leaf plates, machine made leaf plates, in the worst case paper
plates.

Plastics are just convenient and cheap, if the environmental costs are not
considered.

Edible cutlery [http://www.bakeys.com/](http://www.bakeys.com/)

~~~
geodel
Banana leaves may be traditional and popular in southern India where banana
grows aplenty. In Delhi banana leaves would be used in chic restaurants with
traditional touch. It is no way going to be used by street vendors.

I have normally seen steel plates/spoon used by street vendors. Not very
hygienic as they just rinse in water after use.

~~~
slezakattack
When I visited Nepal, a lot of the street vendors had these bowls made of
leaves (perhaps banana leaf, not really sure). I have no idea if they are
financially better off or cost effective but thought I'd mention that I've
seen something like this before.

~~~
mrkgnao
Street _phuchka_ vendors in Kolkata (they are what you call _golgappas_ in
Delhi) will hand you bowls made out of _sal_ leaves. I wonder if that's the
same as what you came across?

[https://billandpaige.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/dsc_6462.jp...](https://billandpaige.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/dsc_6462.jpg)

~~~
slezakattack
That looks vaguely right. I remember it being a bit more richer green look to
it but the shape and everything looks about right.

~~~
mrkgnao
Yeah, that's when they're fresh.

I think using dried leaves saves the trouble of having to pick them off the
tree because they just fall to the ground, but I'm a city boy and wouldn't
know for sure. Might have to ask my father! :)

------
hive_mind
This is India. Starving, thirsty, injured (hit by cars and trucks) cows and
dogs roam the streets, hobbling along, limping along. There are people
starving on the street-side. The poorest children are openly prostituted on
the streets.

How are they going to enforce a rule regarding plastic bags?

The rich will continue to do whatever they want.

The middle-classes will continue to do whatever they can get away with.

The poor will continue to be shit on and abused.

\------------

About 20 years ago they banned smoking in public in Delhi (I was there when
they did it).

All that this ordinance did was to give the police yet another angle to harass
people. More corruption. More bribes.

~~~
someonenice
Public Smoking ban has been largely effective in India. You rarely see people
smoking in public areas. The effectiveness of these laws are that it allows
concerned citizens to raise their voice when they see law is being broken.

~~~
hive_mind
> it allows concerned citizens to raise their voice when they see law is being
> broken

How exactly do concerned citizens raise their voice in India? I once saw a
stray dog that had been run over by a car licking its wounds, waiting to die.
After which it would lay there on the road-side until it had been eaten by
birds and insects. I wanted to raise awareness of my various concerns about
this. How should I have gone about it? Genuinely interested in learning from
you.

An aside: the stoic, pious strength I saw on the dog's face as it licked
itself, knowing it was dying, was one of the most powerful things I've ever
seen.

~~~
jogjayr
> How exactly do concerned citizens raise their voice in India?

In general, much the same as other countries. Call/write/meet with your
municipal corporation member/MLA/MP (though it's doubtful you'll get an
audience unless you have an in). Call/write/meet with the opposition party
members, if it's something that can make the party in power look bad. Post on
social media. If it's newsworthy, there's a very noisy (and competitive) print
and TV media willing to listen to you. I'm not saying all these are effective
options, but they _are_ options.

> I wanted to raise awareness of my various concerns about this. How should I
> have gone about it? Genuinely interested in learning from you.

You could've tried to take it to a vet. My friends and I did this once with a
kitten that got run over. It died before we made it unfortunately. Ofc,
there's probably a greater risk of being bitten by a panicky dog that's in
pain, than with a kitten (my friend got bitten).

------
bogomipz
This is great news! I have a question maybe someone from Delhi could answer,
the article states:

"The ban took effect on the first day of 2017."

What are the vendors doing? Is water being sold in glass bottles with a
deposit scheme for redemption now?

~~~
thunderstrike
I'm curious to know this as well. It would be cool if they implemented this in
the U.S., even if only for the return to dominance of the glass bottle soda.

~~~
bogomipz
It interesting in many places in South America glass bottles are the norm,
they get sterilized and reused. You see crates of them stacked up outside the
kioskos waiting to be picked up. You pay a deposit on the bottle and get a
redemption when you return it. This isn't a new development either, its just
kind of the way its always been. I am not sure why plastic didn't become as
dominant in many of those countries.

~~~
thunderstrike
This is extremely interesting, I wonder what it would take to get this
implemented in the United States?

~~~
bogomipz
I think just a shift in mentality and a bit of legislation. This would
actually be a shift back in the United States really. There was a time when
milk and soft drinks came in glass bottles as a matter of course. Its actually
good for companies bottom lines as well. This from a Coca Cola earning's call:

"Returnable bottles all the rage You may remember a time when you went to the
grocery store and bought returnable glass bottles of Coca-Cola, Sprite, or the
mostly forgotten Tab brand. After you finished with the bottles you returned
them to the store for a deposit refund. In the United States, the last of the
6.5 ounce returnable bottles were finished during October 2012 at a bottling
facility in Minnesota. In Latin America the returnable bottles continue and
contribute greatly to Coca-Cola FEMSA's top line growth in every geographic
region. In Mexico, returnable packages grew 5%. Affordability and the desire
to reduce environmental impact increased consumer appeal. Latin Americans,
specifically Mexicans, faced with a shrinking pocketbook remain keen on ways
to save money. Coca-Cola FEMSA wants to invest more in returnables to appease
consumers' increasingly frugal nature."

I'm of the opinion that beverages actually taste better from bottles, thats
part of the magic of the "Mexican Coke"(along with using real sugar as opposed
to corn syrup.)

Source:

[https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/11/23/5-interest...](https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/11/23/5-interesting-
takeaways-from-coca-cola-femsas-earn.aspx)

------
walrus01
I wish that they could find a way to do this in the Islamabad/Rawalpindi area.
Due to a lack of budget and government coordination for large scale trash pick
up, nearly every stream and ravine in the area is the designated trash dumping
grounds. It's thoroughly littered with plastic shopping bags and plastic
bottles. It won't solve the problem of people throwing trash on nearly any
available piece of unclaimed or unusable land, but at least it'll be paper
based or biodegradable.

------
rjurney
This is awesome. When I was in India ten years ago, everywhere we went in
rural India the trees along creeks, rivers and streams were littered with
plastic bags from where floods had deposited them. They were like leaves, and
the trees were dead. They had already banned plastic bags locally in that
province, and it is good to see a global ban on plastic in general.

In Himachal Pradesh, the plastic bag ban had resulted in a cottage industry
forming where discarded newspapers were folded/glued into shopping bags. I'd
like to see this same thing happen in the US. A friend imported a palette of
these bags to Florida, and he was able to sell them to vendors and make a
small profit. This tells me they might be viable here commercially.

As they say, reduce > _re-use_ > recycle.

------
SteveNuts
Banning it is one thing, we'll see if they can actually enforce it.

~~~
enraged_camel
If Rwanda can enforce it, I don't see why Delhi can't.

[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/15/rwanda...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/15/rwanda-
banned-plastic-bags-so-can-we)

~~~
jpatokal
Rwanda is a pint-sized dictatorship governed with an iron first. Delhi is a
howling cesspit of chaos.

In addition to the obvious enforcement problems in Delhi itself, Delhi is only
a small part of the National Capital Region, meaning tons of plastic will flow
in from Haryana and UP even if Delhi does manage to clean up its act.

------
agentgt
If you are not using reusable bags when going to the grocery store (or any
store) please attempt to try it.

It absolutely amazing how many more groceries you can put in a reusable bag
over a plastic or paper bags. So at the bare minimum it is an optimization
(less trips from car to kitchen).

When I bring this up with people I get unbelievable false rationalization
like: I reuse the bags for trash or the reusable bags take 100x to make over
plastic bags.

Plastic grocery bags have knack of flying into lakes, rivers and streams. I
have saved many turtles and fish a long the Charles river that are caught in
these bags. I have never seen a kitchen trash bag or a reusable bag in the
river.

Many grocery stores even give a discount if you use reusable bags not to
mention reusable bags are extremely cheap (I don't think I have ever paid more
than $2).

~~~
aaronmdjones
Here in England, we recently introduced a tax on all "single-use" plastic
grocery bags located in "large" supermarkets (so, all the common ones) of 50p
per bag. The reusable, stronger, larger bags that one can keep in the boot
(trunk) cost only twice that, and pay for themselves after only 1 supermarket
trip.

I have four of them -- they also stack inside of each other, so only take up
the space of one. I know several people that refuse to use them and keep
getting multiple single-use bags and paying another £2.50 or so every time
they go shopping. It boggles the mind!

------
Abishek_Muthian
When it comes to banning plastic bags, India takes the lead & not just Delhi;
cities like Mumbai, Karwar, Tirumala, Vasco, Rajasthan all have a ban on the
bag though enforcement is questionable. Where as rural villages such as
'Mawlynnong' has not only banned the plastic bags but also got the title of
'Asia's cleanest village', there are other such villages in India. It should
be commended that, villages which hosts majority of population with lower
economic backgrounds are doing their part to protect their environment even
when it's much difficult for them to do so than their counterparts in the
cities who usually don't need to worry about whether their children get to eat
today.

~~~
swatkat
Exactly. Plastic has been banned (and not being used) in various cities in
India. A lot of popular tourist places (Hampi, Ooty comes to mind) have 'no
plastic bags' policy.

------
noahmbarr
All too often it seems US restaurants do the quick calculus of going 100%
disposable cutelry/etc, making a decision we'll still be dealing with 50 years
from now....

I am very supportive of these types programs, even if hard to enforce.

------
SoulMan
Passing a rule is very easy in India as opposed to the enforcement or people
following that. However in this case majority of the source are commercial
outlets which is relatively less difficult to enforce .

------
sfifs
Various forms of plastic bans keep getting imposed year after year in
different places in India.

Nothing practically happens because:

a. Police has better things to do than round up people and shops carrying
plastic bags. They may probably take a bribe from the shop to turn a blind
eye.

b. There's no really low cost and convenient alternative in many cases - in
spite of a lot of shops in India using recycled newspapers for packaging.

Home delivery which is widespread among the richer classes is at least
partially helpful since shops bring things in their own bags. However most of
India is not rich

~~~
piyushpr134
I think you are being knowingly stupid here. Bangalore has plastic ban and
works very well. It does not apply to people but enforced by BBMP (municipal
corporation) on businesses to either not use plastic or to use biodegradeable
one. It works very well. I do not come across much plastic here

~~~
helloindia
Don't know which part of Bangalore you live in. But where I'm right now I
still see shops using plastic bags. And I haven't seen Bangalore become any
cleaner after the supposed ban.

~~~
amolgupta
The ban has limitations on the thickness of the plastic bags used. Garbage
bags etc are still allowed.Over the last few months the plastic cups/plates
etc have almost disappeared from the city. Himachal has such a ban for over 10
years now and has had really positive effects.

------
CaiGengYang
What are they going to replace plastic with ? Can you invent a kind of
material that is as capable as plastic but has zero negative effects on the
environment ?

~~~
codemac
It's not that it needs to be equally capable in each way - you need something
that is more degradable and ecologically sensible for each specific case.

~~~
greglindahl
Or, in some cases, reusable. Most places in the US that have banned disposable
plastic grocery bags are encouraging reusable bags.

~~~
DrScump
Some chains had been giving discounts for "bring-your-own-bag" even before the
outright bag ban. Sprouts _still does!_

------
ra2
It is also banned in Lucknow, a beautiful city in Indian state Uttar
Pradesh.It is a good move.Although govt. should invest more in R&D in order to
find environment friendly alternative.Street food sellers who deal in liquid
edibles had to raise their prices in order to use current plastic alternatives
which are currently clay and glass.

------
theparanoid
Here in California single use plastic bags are banned. Now it's a pain, at
checkout you either have to tell them how many multiuse bags to charge or
bring bags from home.

No so many years ago paper bags were common and what I used. Paper is great,
it's biodegradable, renewable, and convenient.

~~~
wcarron
It's really not a pain. Every store sells paper bags at 10¢ a bag.

------
dirkg
Good in principle, will cause hardships for many in practice. There are
probably millions of street vendors who rely on plastic to pack food to go, as
well as many other shops of course.

There are many other priorities to focus on which can have a far bigger
impact.

------
random16
Three questions: 1) what will replace plastic for convenience products ( aka
single serving consumables )? 2) are there organizations championing this
effort elsewhere? 3) where can i read more facts about Delhi's efforts?

------
smb06
I don't see this being implemented. At least none of the friends and family
have reported this is being implemented. Folks from India - anyone have a
different feedback and they heard this is really being implemented?

------
l3satwik
Let's just hope that this is implemented in an ordered way. We all remember
what happened to Delhi in the last Diwali celebration even after having so
much of law against firecrackers.

------
upofadown
>The ban includes bags, cups and cutlery.

What about all the plastic containers the food originally came in?

~~~
tormeh
Those increase longevity on the shelves. Plastic food packaging is usually a
net win because of the waste it prevents. Glad they didn't ban that.

------
gheijfnfd
Bangalore did this 3-4 years back. I had trouble getting disposable bags even
in rural KA.

------
toephu2
I don't understand how we can build self-driving cars, send people to the
moon, and create advanced facial recognition software, but can't build
technology that can separate plastic bags?

~~~
maxander
Recognizing a plastic bag is tech on par with two of the techs you list (and
arguably beyond sending a man to the moon.) Making a robot that can recognize
plastic bags and manipulate them is harder. And applying that level of
expertise to a public works problem in a capitalist society is _even harder._

(In response to the obvious counterargument; the configuration space of "a
plastic bag mixed in with a bunch of random junk" is actually probably larger
than the configuration space for a road with a dozen other cars on it, and so
is the action space of a reasonably dextrous claw/arm greater than that of a
car. AI is full of easy-sounding things that are really difficult.)

~~~
eru
Oh, you can probably make it work. The question is: can you make it work cheap
enough? Sending people to the moon wasn't cheap..

------
awqrre
no more plastic trash bags... and of course no more using grocery bags as
trash bags...

------
kumarski
Hopefully it is enforced.

------
wallace_f
The economist inside me says it would be better to tax disposable plastic.

The tax could cover the cost to clean up the litter. That would create jobs in
three ways: 1) plastic clean-up jobs, 2) businesses and economic activity that
desperately need disposable plastic can still possibly survive, and ) jobs
making disposable plastic.

Anyways, it's a lot better than taxing things we all agree we want more of.
Like jobs.

~~~
vidyesh
To be honest I hate this economic idea of enforcing a ban via adding tax to
it. This ideology shows the lack of understanding of the disparity in income
in India. The middle class and below are the most affected and they face the
most brunt of all this.

The same goes with how the govt. keeps adding tax on tobacco and its products
every year. Forcing people to stop smoking by not allowing them to buy despite
allowing it to be sold in open market is just one way of violating ones
freedom to choose. I do not support nor encourage smoking but I do not like
the idea of forcing people to stop smoking by making it expensive, tobacco
industry brings a lot of revenue to the govt, the govt just doesn't want to
stop it so they enforce such taxes so the govt. earns the same but the intake
by people is reduced. This isn't a win-win by any means. People will still die
of cancer no matter how moderately they smoke. The problem isn't solved here
its just reduced by probably 10% but the revenue from it is still 100%.

~~~
minusSeven
Dunno I am all for tobacco being expensive. Soon most poor people will no
longer be able to afford them. Which is a good thing to me.

~~~
hfsktr
I am pretty sure a lot of people will just reduce other expenses to
compensate. At least for as long as they can. That just means most of the
money goes to tobacco companies instead of anything else they would have spent
it on.

I think I agree with vidyesh, taxes are for money not for changing social
behavior.

~~~
savanaly
>I am pretty sure a lot of people will just reduce other expenses to
compensate. At least for as long as they can.

We don't have to idly speculate this, the phenomenon is called elasticity of
demand in economics, and not only are there good estimates of elasticity for
various products, there's a rich set of ideas that have been developed around
elasticity, including what happens when you tax goods of various elasticities.

I highly recommend looking into the details yourself (any intro micro
economics textbook will cover it), but the upshot is that cigarettes judged to
have relatively inelastic demand, which is basically what you had said. This
means that a tax on the product will not reduce the equilibrium quantity
consumed by very much. A corollary is that the majority of the tax burden will
fall on the consumers of cigarettes. I'm not sure why you said "most of the
money goes to the tobacco companies"\-- with all tax levels the revenue goes
to the government.

~~~
hfsktr
Yeah the government gets the money. I hadn't thought it out completely while I
was typing and just put what popped into my head.

I did take some form of economics in school but it's not something I really
had a heavy interest in but I understand how it's useful.

------
throwaway420
Not a huge fan of outright bans, and think this is probably the wrong priority
for India to focus on. (I understand this is just Delhi)

Air pollution is huge right now. And sad to say, people pooping in streets and
rivers is still a major problem.

To me, plastic remnants are a very minor issue in comparison.

~~~
bendermon
Even if you poop in your fancy bungalow toilet, it does end up in the rivers,
along with detergent and toxic toilet cleaners.

Banning disposable plastic and non biodegradable detergents would go a great
way in letting microbes and plants do their job in cleaning up the
environment.

With plastics not clogging up the rivers and chemicals not killing all river
life, the rivers would definitely run much cleaner. This move was incidentally
meant to curb air pollution, so clean rivers or oceans are an added benefit.

~~~
SixSigma
> along with detergent and toxic toilet cleaners.

don't forget corpses

[http://www.planetcustodian.com/2015/10/19/8134/over-50-scary...](http://www.planetcustodian.com/2015/10/19/8134/over-50-scary-
images-depicting-filth-of-varanasi-and-river-ganges-that-went-viral-in-
china.html)

~~~
bendermon
Corpses are biodegradable aren't they unless, it is that of superman.

Good protein feed for the fish, birds, crocodiles. Instead of taking up real
estate.

~~~
jimmywanger
Not when you eat the animals that eat corpses afterwards. That's how you
spread diseases, plus when animals eat human flesh, they leave bits floating
in the water supply.

We bury people for a reason. Or we burn them, or leave them on the land to get
eaten by animals, away from water supplies.
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial))

The difference between what you're proposing is the difference between
composting an animal corpse and then using it to fertilize your crops, or just
grinding it up and spraying it all over your tomatoes.

------
vanattab
Can we get the title changed to make it clear that India banned plastic in
Delhi not all of India.

Also the title says "literally all disposable plastic" then in the article it
says applies to cups, bags, cutlery.

~~~
seltzered_
I just read three different articles on this subject and it's not clear if
disposable plastic bottles (bottles, not cups) are also banned. I'd argue this
is one of the bigger problems as displayed by some of the images used in the
articles, and personal experiences of travelling india and seeing miles of
train tracks littered with plastic bottles.

The reason I mention this is that it may be directing action to local vendors,
but not necessarily regional/national drink vendors.

~~~
seltzered_
For those absurdly curious in trying to find an original source on the
proposal/ruling, this is the closest I've found so far:
[http://bspcb.bih.nic.in/NGT%20Judgemt%20dt%2022.12.2016%20in...](http://bspcb.bih.nic.in/NGT%20Judgemt%20dt%2022.12.2016%20in%20OA199%20%20of%202014,%20Almitra%20H%20Patel%20Vs%20Union%20of%20India.pdf)

\- skip to point #23 on page 63 for the thing about banning plastic:

"We further direct that the use of disposable plastic glasses is prohibited in
entire NCT, Delhi at hotels, restaurants and public as well as private
functions. The NCT, Delhi shall take appropriate steps against storage, sale
and use of such plastic material at above places and it shall stand prohibited
w.e.f. 01st of January, 2017."

Note that this still mentions more about plastic cups, not bottles.

------
xyzzy4
Plastic is the least of Delhi's problems. First they should be banning
vehicles that don't meet emission standards. I visited there twice and I'll be
lucky if I don't come down with some lung problem.

Edit: They should ban the burning of plastic, not plastic itself. And enforce
it.

~~~
popobobo
No matter what we do it will never wipe away your prejudice, my friend.

~~~
knowaveragejoe
I fail to see what the above has to do with prejudice, personally. Poor air
quality is a problem in many parts of the world, notably so in developing
areas.

~~~
UweSchmidt
The prejudice seems to be "ah India, nice try but you still fail badly in an
unrelated area" while in fact in this regard Delhi is more progressive than
much of Europe and the US.

Reducing plastic waste is a step in the right direction and should not be
dismissed just because there are other problems that may be harder to fix
right now.

~~~
snowpanda
>"ah India, nice try but you still fail badly in an unrelated area"

That's not what a prejudice is. It's also not what he said. Maybe if people
wouldn't be so hypersensitive we could address the problems a country might be
facing. India has many issues.

So what if he points that out, while we're discussing a different issue? It's
part of having a conversation.

~~~
UweSchmidt
Good points. Would we have the same conversation about the US though?
"Electric cars taking over?" \- "Wow but pollution due to fracking is a way
bigger problem!"

------
libso
titlegore

"Delhi has banned disposable plastic"

Not all of India. Just Delhi.

~~~
popobobo
"Delhi of India has banned disposable plastic"

------
edblarney
It's great. But the 'trash problem' in India runs deeper.

They need to have anti-litter regulation, awareness campaigns, and
enforcement.

~~~
whitenoice
Its in progress: Swachh Bharat (Clean India) -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swachh_Bharat_Abhiyan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swachh_Bharat_Abhiyan)

------
X86BSD
Why only Delhi?! That country is drowning in filth not just Delhi.

~~~
throwaway5363
The state of Karnataka has a ban in place [1] since last year and as a
resident of Bangalore I can confirm that the ban is effective in reducing the
use of plastic where it is indeed avoidable.

[1] [http://m.timesofindia.com/city/bengaluru/Total-plastic-
ban-i...](http://m.timesofindia.com/city/bengaluru/Total-plastic-ban-in-
Karnataka/articleshow/51397198.cms)

