Ban on single-use plastic won't help

Plastic bags were but one aspect of India's growing waste management crisis

Shelves upon shelves of single-use plastic glared at me at the neighbourhood shop the other day. Just as a customer ahead of me left with two plastic bags of shopping, the rather dreary public service announcement exhorting people to stop using plastic bags, compost their kitchen waste and dispose of the rest properly, came on radio. I raised my eyebrows at its apposite timing, and the shopkeeper became instantly defensive. 

“Stopping the use of plastic bags is easier said than done!” he said. “My customers demand plastic bags because the paper ones are so flimsy...” Most of them didn't carry their