Plastic-free Hyderabad has to be citizens' movement

HYDERABAD: Reverberating the

United Nation's awakening call

to ditch plastic, Telangana, along with rest of India, on Tuesday marked World Environment Day with 'beat the plastic pollution' as its theme.


However, with the city sitting on heaps of plastic waste, community and government efforts to 'beat the plastic pollution' seem ironic. From plastic bottles on the roadsides to polythene bags choking drains, from food wrappers to carry bags, the menace continues.

As per government figures, Hyderabad generates 450 to 500 tonnes of plastic daily. Bags of less than 50 microns were banned in the city in June 2016. But the ban has not translated into the kind of success as was desired. There is a blatant violation due to poor awareness.

"Such initiatives to mark World Environment Day are superficial. Even as the government claims to be making efforts for dealing with the plastic waste, the ground reality is different.

"It is due to insufficient policing that plastic waste is eating up our lakes and other water bodies," said

Lubna Sarwath

, co-convener of Save Our Urban Lakes (SOUL).

Experts say a key reason for failure of the ban has been the booming plastic industry. In addition, cost effectiveness, easy availability, cheap manufacturing and durability are the key reasons for the failure of plastic bag ban.

"Apart from plastic bags, PET bottles and food wrappers also contribute to pollution. A lot of people are still oblivious to the hazards of plastic waste to the environment," said Sampada Nakhare, a solid waste management volunteer, adding "We keep seeing use of PET bottles at GHMC meetings and other government meetings. When the government itself is ignorant about the plastic usage how can it make the public discourage its use?"