The campaign ‘Where is your cotton bag’ is self-explanatory and meant to encourage people to use cotton bags instead of plastic. Post a picture with a cotton bag and tag others to emulate!
Arindam Ganguly, OP
Bhubaneswar: The government will ban plastic in the five municipal corporation areas and the pilgrim town of Puri from October 2.
The Chief Minister had said earlier that the ban on plastic will be imposed in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Rourkela, Berhampur and Sambalpur cities and Puri from October 2 in the first phase.
The government had decided to ban plastic in the state from October. But to implement the decision the people must be made aware about the need for banning plastic.
For this a five-member group form Odisha has started the campaign #Whereisyourcottonbag? They ask people to take a picture of their cotton bags and post it on their timeline with the question #Whereisyourcottonbag?. After that they must tag their friends and ask them the above question.
Talking about the campaign, Rudra Prasanna Rath said the aim is two fold. The first is to create a conducive environment among people to make them ready for the ban in October as the ban can’t be implemented suddenly. “We can ban plastic if we act strongly. The second aspect is to make it a pan India movement and not just limit it to the city,” he said.
As part of the campaign we are also writing letters to all organisation including the International Hockey Federation to ban single use plastic and polythene during the World Cup Hockey tournament 2018 in Odisha.
Sangram Swain, another member of the group, said the reason for using cotton to replace plastic is that it has middle class appeal and many people are using cotton bags for shopping now. It is also environment friendly and we think that it is the best possible replacement for plastic.
The campaign which was started in July first week has got strong support and around 200 people had uploaded photos of their cotton bags. People from other countries like Abu Dhabi have supported us.
In fact some hotels and restaurants have also agreed not to use single use plastic as per our request. Many organisations have taken inspiration from us and have started spreading messages against the use of plastic through videos.
Sudhanshu, another member, said that they will start campaigning in the city from August regarding the plastic ban by visiting markets and houses.
Rudra said India is the second biggest emerging market economy in Asia, and had a per capita polymer consumption 11 kg in 2017, lower than China’s 38 kg and Europe’s 65 kg, according to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
More than consumption India’s problem is disposal of plastic. “Plastic is not the problem, littering is the issue we need to address it,” he said.
India generates over 15,000 tonnes of plastic waste a day. Around 9,000 tonnes of this are recycled while the remaining is dumped in landfills, streets and drains, says the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, in its 2016 report.
Maharashtra recently announced a ban on plastic, but strong opposition by plastic bag manufacturers and allied industries pushed back its implementation by three months.
So it is critical to create awareness about the need for banning plastic among people so that they will be ready by October, Rudra added.
