Say Good Bye to Plastic Bags - “It is Better for your Generations”

TMI Bureau

Port Blair, Oct 02: As part of National Campaign against the single-use plastic and on the occasion of 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Over 25000 cloth bags (made by Skill Development Centre, DBRAIT) were distributed to general public for free by DBRAIT in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Oct 02, 2019. At different distribution points, people at large numbers collected the cloth bags in exchange of a polythene bag.

Background: Less than 50 years ago plastic bags were a rarity in the world. In Andaman it's just a decade ago Polyethylene were came into use, but badly affected a lot.

Before plastic bags, there was paper or cloth. Paper bags worked but they were not easy to carry and they weren't nearly as strong as plastic. The most important part is paper was more expensive to produce than plastic. The cost of disposal and clean up of plastic bags comes back to the tax payer, hazardously.

However, polyethylene (the most common type of plastic used for disposable bags) was first created in 1898 but it was not until the mid 1950s that a high-density polyethylene was invented. High density polyethylene was the "breakthrough" that enabled the production of cheap, yet strong plastic bags.

This seemingly simple invention changed the way we shop and had unimaginable consequences for our natural environment. The Problem We Didn't See Coming (or Didn't Care To See). The problem with plastic that wasn't considered at the time, but now the environmental ramifications of widespread use is disastrous due to plastic.

Plastic contribution to global warming to massive ocean pollution, plastic bags have become one of the largest environmental degradation are also taking their toll on human health this time.