
Nepal's Ban on Production and Use of Plastic Bags Comes into Effect - dpflan
https://thehimalayantimes.com/kathmandu/ban-production-use-plastic-bags-comes-effect/
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nl
Note that this appears to be a ban on the thin, single user plastic bags only.

We've had a similar ban here in South Australia for a number of years now. It
has worked quite well - one either remembers to bring a bag when grocery
shopping, or buys a reusable one then.

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tajen
Since July 1st, France has banned them too. They were already forbidden is
supermarkets anyways. Note that the biodegradable corn-based plastic bags are
still allowed.

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justinclift
Interestingly, the "biodegradable" bags seem kind of scam-ish. Apparently the
PLA (corn based) ones only break down in a "commercial" composting
environment. According to this article, that means 10 days at some specific
temperature (the article says "70 degrees" but no more).

[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/corn-plastic-
to...](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/corn-plastic-to-the-
rescue-126404720/?all)

Only cottoned onto this personally, after noticing the "compostable" bags I'd
been using to hold vegetable scraps... weren't compositing in the home compost
bin even many months later (nearly a year now). :/

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nepalese_junky
I hope the government enforces this rule to the fullest extent. We also need
to regulate those water bottles that are tossed in every corner of the
streets.

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chiph
Offer a return payment for them of a few cents each. It's how a lot of
highways & cities in the US stay clean of aluminum cans - the homeless pick
them up and turn them in for a profit.

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neokya
Exactly. In Germany, return payment is 0.25 EURO and it works great. Most
people at home collect them and bring to supermarket. Those who throw them on
streets, homeless people are more than happy to pick up and cash in. Win-win
situation in every angle.

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collyw
They are nice thick ones as well. I usually bring one or two home from
Germany, as they are far better suited for reuse when hiking than the crappy
ones you get here.

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douche
Is it not possible to get the old-style brown paper bags instead?

Quite honestly, I would prefer to go back to the paper bags, since they hold
more, are sturdier, and are biodegradable. Although I would have to come up
with a new solution for dog waste...

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eric-hu
Paper burrito technique: use a piece of paper longer than the specimen, cover,
roll, twist the ends. Works for roaches and crickets too.

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DanBC
Nepal has a population of about 28m. Kathmandu has a population of about 1m.

> The Nepal Plastic Manufacturers’ Association said that whether the ban is
> imposed or not, 4,700,000 to 4,800,000 pieces of plastic bags would be
> consumed daily in Kathmandu itself.

That's a surprising number of bags for a small population. Everyone in
Kathmandu uses more than 4 bags, every single day?

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nabn
Not proud to admit this, but yes, that'd easily be the average, if not more. (
I live here in the capital)

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liquidise
That is a remarkable statistic. Can you give an example or two of how they are
used? Have they become the only way people transports lunches/books/etc?

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smackay
This is anecdotal and all but I am not so sure ban on plastic bags is that
effective (though the figures given for Ireland seem substantial):

The free, single-use plastic bags were perfect for our 20 litre garbage bin.
Now I have to buy 30 litre garbage bags (the minimum size available) so, on
that alone, the change means we are using 50% more plastic.

We still accumulate reusable bags, though at a lower rate. So much so that I
have to start using them as garbage bags, to thin the herd. The takeaway from
this is that the 10 cent charge is way too low.

The reusable bags were great for other things also: taking things for
recycling, wet clothes from swimming, going to beach, etc. The reusable bags
are bulky so other types of plastic bag are pressed into use and hoarded.

So we got at least two uses out of the previous bags: one trip home with
groceries and another trip taking out garbage/recycling.

What did make a substantial difference to our household's consumption of
plastic bags was that some supermarkets (here in Portugal) offered, free of
charge, heavy-duty, hold-all style bags for a short period of time. These are
long lived and infinitely preferable to the single-use sort.

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TruthAndDare
I am confused. You seem to be saying that the law had negative consequences
for you and that you therefore think the cost needs to be increased to correct
you into the intended behavior.

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basicplus2
for me this is correct.. now me the consumer simply pays more.. once as a
supermarket doesn't pay for it and does not lower their prices and twice as I
as a consumer now pay for a rubbish bag.

no reduction in plastic bags, but usually more plastic waste as as they are
bigger.

supermarkets, plastics manufacturers, and oil companies get more profits,
ordinary consumers pay more, mother nature a slap in the face..

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rrradical
So then stop using plastic bags? That's the whole point of the legislation.

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EGreg
He is saying that the result is the opposite of the intent of the law. Telling
a single individual to stop using the bags shows it doesn't work. It's like
yelling at a user during user testing that they should just click the obvious
button.

Laws should have A/B testing before rolling out to everyone.

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dragonwriter
In that plastic bag bans with the same basic parameters were applied in a few
cities before spreading, in this particular case there was a kid of A/B
testing before they were applied to everyone (actually, still pretty fast from
everyone).

The argument upthread is that one household's behavior wasn't what the law
intended, which is hardly a compelling counterargument.

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fovc
Is plastic vs paper bags really that clear-cut an issue? I get the
recycle/decompose angle, but I would have thought that paper bags would use
much more energy (embedded + transport), release many more chemicals, and
cause much more deforestation. I suppose Nepal is probably optimizing for the
trash reduction benefit

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driverdan
Plastic bags are actually more environmentally friendly for the issue you
mentioned. Their production uses far less energy and water which results in
fewer CO and CO2 emissions. The only negative impact of plastic bags is that
people litter.

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ethagnawl
> The only negative impact of plastic bags is that people litter.

Of course this does happen. However, even if people were meticulous about
putting their used plastic bags in trash receptacles, there are still _lots_
of ways for plastic bags to make their way into the environment: trash cans
get overturned, trash bags sitting on the curb waiting to be picked up are
torn open by animals, etc.

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fubar682
Great effort!!

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TruthAndDare
Me too!

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aaron695
Like most dictatorship style enforcement of human behaviors I find this
distastefull to the extreme.

Like most dictatorship style policies its also pointless and for theatrics
only.

Perhaps Nepal could improve child mortality first even if its not hipster
enough for the west.

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jahnu
What a hysterical reaction. It's not dictatorship. They can vote out the
ruling government any time. Some things require enforcement. My post people
are happy with such enforcement that comes with a small cost to personal
liberty that benefits pretty much everyone.

Ireland did something similar years ago and the results were incredible. An
almost overnight transformation of the cleanliness of the cities and
countryside. Nobody would like to reverse the decision now despite significant
opposition before-hand. Same with the smoking ban.

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TruthAndDare
> Ireland did something similar years ago and the results were incredible. An
> almost overnight transformation of the cleanliness of the cities and
> countryside. Nobody would like to reverse the decision now despite
> significant opposition before-hand.

Are you suggesting that the issue of debate was whether it would lead to less
litter? That's almost obvious, isn't it? Surely, the question must rather be
whether it is morally acceptable for us to impose such a rule on other people.

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samastur
For us? It's their government which is elected.

Have you ever been to Kathmandu? Non-degradable rubbish is problem in many
places, but I don't remember one where there would be so much of it littered
on the side of roads for kilometers at end.

