The ban on plastic in Thrissur city still remains on paper.

The
Thrissur Corporation had imposed a blanket ban on manufacture, sale,
storage and use of plastic carry bags on July 1, 2011, and had warned
the violators of stiff penalty including cancellation of licence. The
initiative was part of the civic body’s efforts to free the city of
plastic.

However, due to slack enforcement and lack of cost-effective alternatives, traders across the city openly flout the ban.

Most
shops in the city hand out plastic carry bags free of charge. Plastic
waste discarded in dumping yards is not cleared by the corporation.
There is also no system in place to recycle the waste.

According
to health officials of the corporation shortage of staff and resistance
from traders and general public have come in the way of enforcing the
ban.

However they claimed that most of the shopping
centres and retail chains had stopped handing over goods in plastic bags
to customers.

Traders insist that they continue to use plastic bags because the civic body has failed to provide a cost-effective alternative.

The paper bags and jute bags are expensive and there is also stiff resistance against use of polypropylene bags.

According
to experts, polypropylene that comes under low-density polyethylene
will change the structure of the soil itself. As it looks like cloth
animals may consume it. Segregation of polypropylene is more difficult
than plastics.

Meanwhile, garbage continues to be
dumped in plastic carry bags in the city. As it has been more than a
year since the dumping of the city’s garbage at Lalur had been stopped,
accumulated filth and plastic waste dot the roads of Thrissur.

The
Corporation seems to have fallen short of ideas to find an alternative.
To resolve the growing waste management problem, the civic body has
resorted to burning of garbage lying on streets.

Sanitation
workers roaming around the city with kerosene cans and burning garbage
heaped at street corners is a regular sight at night in the city.

Burning
of garbage leads to emission of carbon monoxide along with carbon
dioxide, say environmentalists. Burning of plastics and PVC produces
many produce toxic fumes, including dioxin, which causes cancer, they
noted.

Though the corporation had plans to rope in
ragpickers to collect plastics from households, there was no initiative
to implement the project.