Plastic bags thrown carelessly on roads get into drains and the sewer system and choke them. As a result sewage water spills on road and causes spread of diseases. Plastics give out harmful gases upon heating or burning which causes air pollution and many health problems. Plastic bags filled with garbage is thrown away in the open. When stray animals look for food in these bags, they swallow plastic bags along with food.

Plastic bags are extremely durable. In case you are thinking of this as an advantage, just bring to mind an image of the huge landfill that you visited on the city outskirts, the other day. In most probability, majority of the rubbish present there will comprise of plastic bags only. In other words, plastic bags have led to a great increase in the pollution levels.

One of the main disadvantages of plastic bags is that they are not renewable. The reason behind this is that they are made of petrochemicals, a non-renewable source of energy. They can be recycled, but not as easily as paper bags. Plastic bags can last for as much as hundreds of years. In other words, long after you are no more, the plastic bag used by you will be in existence.

Plastics do not simply remain in our water systems, they also end up in our food chain.  With the ability to absorb contaminants, these particles become toxic, bioaccumulating in species low in the food chain, passing them on to larger predators such as humans.

Current Law

Currently, the ban on plastic in Hyderabad is limited to manufacture and use of plastic carry bags measuring below 50 microns. This is in accordance with the plastic waste management rules, 2016, of the Central government, which made it mandatory to ban plastic bags with thickness less than 50 microns.

Disadvantages of using plastic bags with a thickness more than 50 microns.

The thicker plastic bag is more expensive, 5 times more expensive so people are supposed use less of it. (But still one 50 micron bag has 5 times the plastic of five 10 micron bags , unless the usage is reduced to less than 5 times you are still introducing the same amount of plastic into the environment. )

In our city there is no formal recycling. There is no organised sector to provide the plastic recyclers with plastic waste to recycle, the whole system is dependent on rag pickers. A 50micron bag is a more attractive option for the rag pickers compared to a 10 micron bag .

We are a team of 6 students in their 4th year of  University. We have started this movement to highlight the direct and indirect effects of plastic and why the current law is not a solution and to make people aware of the worsening situation .