Plastic Ban: Businesses finding ways to deal with it

Kishore Sharma sits outside his shop on a busy street in Delhi on a hot and muggy Sunday afternoon with nothing much to do. He sells plastic spoons, plastic plates, and other things, but sales have not been very good. "Business kaafi thapp hai (business is very low). People aren't buying as many plastic spoons and knives anymore," he says with sadness. Since the ban on single-use plastic products went into effect a month ago, sellers like Kishore are finding it hard to find buyers.

Drop in demand

The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change banned the making, importing, and selling of 19 plastic items on July 1. These items include spoons, straws, and forks. This has led to a drop in consumer demand, which was bound to happen. Even though Kishore's situation is sad, many sellers are finding ways to deal with the problem.

Ratan, who owns a shop on the same street that fixes and sells accessories for mobile phones, says he has switched from plastic to glass screen protectors. Mangu Metha, who also sells plastic things, doesn't seem to care. He says that even though the notice was sent, it will not be possible to get rid of all plastic at once from the system. "It's not that easy that you make an announcement one day and we start doing it the next day," he says in a matter-of-fact way. After all, he says, this is India.

Change in how people think

People are slowly learning about the effects of plastic and trying to make choices that are better for the environment. Some things that can help in the long run are separating trash at its source and bringing your own bags to the store. But more people need to switch to this other way of living for the plastic ban to work. It's not easy to deal with the changes that come with the ban on plastic. Vikas Kumar, the founder of a direct-to-consumer (D2C) grocery brand called Go Grocer, says that there are some cost issues with using different ways to package things. "The cost of other packaging options is very high. The price might go up by 15%. Also, if you want to use paper straws instead of plastic ones, you have to cut down trees." Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in many different fields are not happy about the ban. The All India Plastic Manufacturers Association has said that the ban could put up to 88,000 factories that make single-use plastic out of business. It will hurt the economy because the MSME sector is the second largest employer in India and makes up 30% of the country's GDP. But Vikas says that these rules are necessary and that we have to find ways to stop the plastic problem right away.

Opportunities

Even though the ban on plastic has hurt some businesses, it has also led to new business ideas and opportunities. Manufacturers who want to switch to more environmentally friendly materials are buying a lot more bamboo and wood. In the last month, the number of searches for wood and bamboo dealers on Justdial went up by 22% in tier 1 cities and by 29% in tier 2 cities. Several companies are working on making products that can replace plastic that is only used once. Sunbird Straws, which is based in Bengaluru, makes straws from coconut leaves that have fallen and dried out on their own. Cocoatrait, a chocolate company based in Chennai, India, makes its packaging out of paper made from recycled cotton and cocoa husk. The founder of the company, L. Nitin Chordia, says that no plastic is used in the packaging.

Conclusion

The path to sustainability seems long and hard, with many problems to solve along the way.

Chordia says that in the long run, plastic needs to be taken out of the supply chain as a whole, not just at the end product stage. But, he says, it will be hard to get rid of all plastic from the system because it is cheap and easy to find and move.