Ban Plastic Bags in India

In many countries of the world, there has been a phase-out of lightweight plastic bags. Single-use plastic shopping bags, commonly made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic, have traditionally been given free to customers by stores when purchasing goods—a popular method considered a strong, cheap, and hygienic way of transporting items. Problems associated with plastic bags include use of non-renewable resources (such as crude oil, gas and coal), disposal, and environmental impacts.
Governments all over the world have taken action to ban the sale of lightweight bags, charge customers for lightweight bags and/or generate taxes from the stores who sell them. The Bangladesh government was the first to do so in 2002, imposing a total ban on the bag. Such a ban has also been applied in countries such as Rwanda, China, Taiwan and Macedonia. Some countries in Western Europe impose a fee per bag. Bans, partial bans, and fees have been enacted by some local jurisdictions in North America, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Myanmar. Concurrently with the reduction in lightweight plastic bags, shops have introduced reusable non plastic shopping bags. Even when disposed of properly, they take many years to decompose and break down, generating large amounts of garbage over long periods of time. If not disposed of properly the bags can pollute waterways, clog sewers and have been found in oceans affecting the habitat of animals and marine creatures.
Petroleum is used to produce plastic bags. A car would be able to drive 11 metres on the amount of petroleum used to make a plastic bag. Two primary kinds of direct damage to wildlife are entanglement and ingestion. Wildlife animals or birds can become entangled. When the animals or birds are entangled they drown or cannot fly due to entanglement. In India our landfills are choked with plastic bags creating a crunch for more space for dumping grounds. Our storm water drains are threatened to explode during heavy monsoons due to plastic bags blocking the drainage system. We need to get our Government to ban plastic bags in India totally and put a fine on any one using plastic bags.