The cost of convenience

For a few minutes of convenience, people mindlessly turn to single-use plastic bags, apparently oblivious to its persistence in the environment, both on land and in the oceans, for hundreds of years. Besides ending up in landfills or as litter in all possible places, they very often clog drainage systems and even prevent the recharge of groundwater aquifers. The bigger ramification is the death of cattle and a huge number of marine animals every year due to plastic bag ingestion. The production process is energy-intensive. It is for these reasons that in 2012 the >Supreme Court observed that in the absence of tough measures, the “next generation will be threatened with something more serious than the atom bomb”. It is strange and surprising that in a country where reuse and recycling are part of the ethos, the rampant use of disposable plastic bags has become second nature. At a time when solid waste management even for biodegradable waste is non-existent, it is naive to think of ever managing single-use bag waste. Pls share this petition. Let's ban plastic bags! To read full article: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-the-cost-of-convenience/article6701694.ece