Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 10 Jul: Despite the ban on the use of single-use plastics (SUP) in the markets from 1 July, many can still be seen using SUPs in the daily and weekly markets in the Itanagar Capital Region.
A section of the shopkeepers in the Naharlagun daily market informed that they are using stocked plastic carry bags, while a few said that they have bought SUPs from Harmutty in Assam.
“Most of the customers who come with their own bags are women and middle-aged men, while young people ask for plastic bags,” said Shanti Dey, a vegetable vendor in the Naharlagun daily market.
He said that, in the initial days of the ban, when the shops started using newspapers to wrap items, many customers refused it and it affected business.
“The ban on plastic is a good initiative by the government, but only when the people also adhere to it. A few persons will also get angry, shout at us, and go away,” he said.
Chandan Pal, who runs a commercial armoury shop that sells daos and knives, said that “the problem of plastic use will stop only when there will be a complete ban on its manufacture.”
While a few shopkeepers use plastic carry bags with less than 75 percent microns, others use SUPs with higher than 75 percent microns, as per the guidelines issued under the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, but complain about the hefty price.
Accordingly, a few wholesale shops in the ICR have started selling plastic carry bags containing microns higher than 75 percent.
On Sunday, a good number of people could be seen in the markets with their own bags. One of the customers said that “as citizens, we customers should be equally responsible.”
“I always carry my own bag whenever I venture out to the market, and ask for meat to be wrapped in newspapers while purchasing it,” she said.
While a shopkeeper said that customers keep asking for items to be packed in plastic bags, a few meat and fish sellers complained that using newspapers costs them more “as a lot of papers is required to pack.”
Meanwhile, the vendors of the Saturday market in Doimukh and the Sunday market near the Naharlagun helipad are still using non-biodegradable plastic bags, and so are several colony shops.