<story><title>Mumbai bans plastic bags, bottles, and single-use plastic containers</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/25/mumbai-india-bans-plastic-bags-and-bottles</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jdietrich</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt;Instead, government could&amp;#x27;ve imposed ban on the consumer products which are wrapped using plastic material. Almost 50% plastic come directly from such consumer products sold by all FMCG companies. Such plastic material which is used as a wrapper (e.g. mineral bottles, wrappers of chocolates, biscuits, wafers, tobacco, etc.) is often useless and people tend to throw it right away.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Broadly speaking, that would be a terrible backwards step for the environment. Plastic packaging often reduces waste by protecting the product from spoilage and damage.&lt;p&gt;A lot of people bemoan the plastic wrapping on cucumbers, but that wrapping doubles the shelf life of the product. It&amp;#x27;s a net win, because the environmental impact of wasted cucumbers is far greater than the environmental impact of a gram or two of polyethylene wrapping.&lt;p&gt;Many people argue that milk should be sold in re-usable glass containers rather than disposable bottles or cartons, but the environmental case is really marginal. The glass bottle is considerably more energy-intensive to produce and transport, with more energy used to collect and wash it for re-use. Returnable glass bottles are often worse than disposable plastic if the transport distance is too great and&amp;#x2F;or the breakage rate is too high. In many cases, the best option is reusable plastic bottles, which are less energy-intensive to manufacture, lighter to transport and more durable than glass.&lt;p&gt;Plastic is a wonderful material that has an important role to play in a sustainable economy. There has been a huge increase in the quality and availability of bio-based and biodegradable plastics in the packaging industry. We have irrationally demonised a very useful material, creating a huge distraction from much more serious environmental problems.&lt;p&gt;If you buy a beef steak wrapped in plastic, the problem is the steak, not the wrapper. The plastic wrapper produced ~10g of CO2 and required ~100ml of water to produce; the steak produced ~7kg of CO2 and required ~4,000 litres of water to produce. As long as it is disposed of responsibly, a whole trash bag full of plastic packaging has a negligible environmental impact compared to a single portion of beef.</text></item><item><author>vishaltelangre</author><text>Instead, government could&amp;#x27;ve imposed ban on the consumer products which are wrapped using plastic material. Almost 50% plastic come directly from such consumer products sold by all FMCG companies. Such plastic material which is used as a wrapper (e.g. mineral bottles, wrappers of chocolates, biscuits, wafers, tobacco, etc.) is often useless and people tend to throw it right away.&lt;p&gt;I agree that &amp;quot;we&amp;quot;, the people need to take a pledge to stop using plastic as much as we can. But if there&amp;#x27;s no restriction put on giant FMCG companies such as Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Patanjali, Netsle, Procter and Gamble, etc. from supplying their products wrapped in plastic, I consider all of these government initiatives merely as a gimmick.&lt;p&gt;EDIT 1: 
Another comment I left on this thread - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=17400028&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=17400028&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;EDIT 2:
In India, plastic is a major contributor of blocking sewers and rivers, especially in rainy seasons. Another important problem plastic waste produces is that since government bodies (such as, municipal corporations, gram panchayats, etc.) are unable to dump and&amp;#x2F;or recycle plastic waste properly, it is accidentally consumed by animals and is the major reason for their deaths. Another issue is that, often &amp;quot;dumping waste&amp;quot; is considered as &amp;quot;burning&amp;quot; it. Burning plastic waste disturbs healthy air and is a major factor among others responsible for the increased air pollution in Indian cities recently.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>athenot</author><text>While CO₂ emission is important, this is not primary reason for banning plastic bags. It&amp;#x27;s plastic in various states of (un)decomposition all over the ecosystem.&lt;p&gt;A cucumber is 100% biodegradable with no solid residue. The plastic that wraps it will take a long time to decompose and is likely to be found clogging up some piece of nature—whether in the soil, affecting plants or obstructing some body function of an animal.</text></comment>
<story><title>Mumbai bans plastic bags, bottles, and single-use plastic containers</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/25/mumbai-india-bans-plastic-bags-and-bottles</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jdietrich</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt;Instead, government could&amp;#x27;ve imposed ban on the consumer products which are wrapped using plastic material. Almost 50% plastic come directly from such consumer products sold by all FMCG companies. Such plastic material which is used as a wrapper (e.g. mineral bottles, wrappers of chocolates, biscuits, wafers, tobacco, etc.) is often useless and people tend to throw it right away.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Broadly speaking, that would be a terrible backwards step for the environment. Plastic packaging often reduces waste by protecting the product from spoilage and damage.&lt;p&gt;A lot of people bemoan the plastic wrapping on cucumbers, but that wrapping doubles the shelf life of the product. It&amp;#x27;s a net win, because the environmental impact of wasted cucumbers is far greater than the environmental impact of a gram or two of polyethylene wrapping.&lt;p&gt;Many people argue that milk should be sold in re-usable glass containers rather than disposable bottles or cartons, but the environmental case is really marginal. The glass bottle is considerably more energy-intensive to produce and transport, with more energy used to collect and wash it for re-use. Returnable glass bottles are often worse than disposable plastic if the transport distance is too great and&amp;#x2F;or the breakage rate is too high. In many cases, the best option is reusable plastic bottles, which are less energy-intensive to manufacture, lighter to transport and more durable than glass.&lt;p&gt;Plastic is a wonderful material that has an important role to play in a sustainable economy. There has been a huge increase in the quality and availability of bio-based and biodegradable plastics in the packaging industry. We have irrationally demonised a very useful material, creating a huge distraction from much more serious environmental problems.&lt;p&gt;If you buy a beef steak wrapped in plastic, the problem is the steak, not the wrapper. The plastic wrapper produced ~10g of CO2 and required ~100ml of water to produce; the steak produced ~7kg of CO2 and required ~4,000 litres of water to produce. As long as it is disposed of responsibly, a whole trash bag full of plastic packaging has a negligible environmental impact compared to a single portion of beef.</text></item><item><author>vishaltelangre</author><text>Instead, government could&amp;#x27;ve imposed ban on the consumer products which are wrapped using plastic material. Almost 50% plastic come directly from such consumer products sold by all FMCG companies. Such plastic material which is used as a wrapper (e.g. mineral bottles, wrappers of chocolates, biscuits, wafers, tobacco, etc.) is often useless and people tend to throw it right away.&lt;p&gt;I agree that &amp;quot;we&amp;quot;, the people need to take a pledge to stop using plastic as much as we can. But if there&amp;#x27;s no restriction put on giant FMCG companies such as Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Patanjali, Netsle, Procter and Gamble, etc. from supplying their products wrapped in plastic, I consider all of these government initiatives merely as a gimmick.&lt;p&gt;EDIT 1: 
Another comment I left on this thread - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=17400028&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=17400028&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;EDIT 2:
In India, plastic is a major contributor of blocking sewers and rivers, especially in rainy seasons. Another important problem plastic waste produces is that since government bodies (such as, municipal corporations, gram panchayats, etc.) are unable to dump and&amp;#x2F;or recycle plastic waste properly, it is accidentally consumed by animals and is the major reason for their deaths. Another issue is that, often &amp;quot;dumping waste&amp;quot; is considered as &amp;quot;burning&amp;quot; it. Burning plastic waste disturbs healthy air and is a major factor among others responsible for the increased air pollution in Indian cities recently.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>codeisawesome</author><text>Energy appears to be obtainable sustainably (so a feeling manifests that it’s okay to waste it right now as long as we keep pedalling hard toward a clean solution ASAP). Plastic degradation appears to be a much harder problem. Also of course, helps that plastic garbage is “visible and ugly”, whereas climate change is abstract.</text></comment>