Customers and shopkeepers in India's capital will soon face jail sentence or stiff fine for using polythene bags writes Julia Stephenson

 

Fed up with the devastating effects of plastic refuse in their city, Delhi is in the process of banning plastic bags. Meanwhile other countries and cities as diverse as Rwanda, Zanzibar, Los Melbourne, China, Israel and Los Angeles have already banned plastic bags - or are in the process of charging for them, with a view to eventually banning them for good.  

This is a radical and necessary action. Plastic bags typically wreak havoc in the landscape by blocking drains and sewage systems and damaging ground water, soil, and native plants. They can kill the valuable livestock and foraging animals that ingest them. They can also help spread of malaria by creating of minipools of warm water that allow mosquitoes to breed rapidly.  Every year our seas become 'home' to more and more bags that find their way there through our sewers and waterways. Animals and sea creatures are hurt and killed every day by discarded plastic, which clogs their intestines and leads to slow starvation. Others become entangled in plastic bags and drown.

That’s the bad news. The good news is there is plenty we can do to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the bin. Bags for life are now sold everywhere but I find string bags (from www.naturalcollection.com) much more attractive and convenient – they are small and light enough to keep in the bottom of your bag all the time yet they expand to tardis like proportions when full.

Even the most staunch plastic bag refusenik (yes even me) will end up with surplus plastic bags. I try to off-load any extra to green-minded stallholders at my local farmers market. Bags cost them money and provided they are clean enough are often gratefully received. I also give them to the man who delivers my weekly farm box (www.farmaround.co.uk) but I fear he is too polite to refuse and throws them away as soon as he’s out of sight. 

I also use the plastic bags used to package magazines and newspapers as sandwich bags. It’s worth keeping a couple in your bag to fill with fruit and vegetables when you go shopping. Or use them to cover food in the fridge like cling film.

Obsessive?  Not me! 

Some people might say what’s the point of re-using our old bags when it feels like the planet is sinking under a great weight of plastic, but as Ghandi said, 'Almost everything we do will seem insignificant but it is important that you do it.'