The Coimbatore Corporation seized nine tonnes of single-use plastic in the city in the last five months and even as officials continue to seize the plastic, its use continues across the city.
Be it markets, eateries, or roadside vendors, use of banned plastic bags are common in many outlets.
For instance, at the Flower Market and Anna market, vendors R. Ambika and K. Devaraj asked their customers whether they had a bag. When the response was negative, they immediately pulled out single use plastic covers to hand over the purchased items to the respective customers.
The local vendors claim there are no affordable alternatives. “Middlemen who buy plastic items from Raja Street or Thomas Street visit us at the markets to sell a pack of 100 covers for ₹ 100 whereas paper bags are ₹5 a piece. Polythene bags are here to stay unless manufacturing is stopped and cheaper replacements are easily available,” said Ambiga.
M. Nazar, a vendor at the Flower Market, claimed that the Meendum Manjapai machine had worked well only for a month and was under repair now.
An agency on Thomas Street near Raja Street claimed that it sourced single-use plastic products from Gujarat and Maharashtra and receive at least 200 orders a day from its customers.
An official from the Corporation said the civic body officials recently seized 638 kg of banned plastic items from an outlet on Thomas Street and levied a fine of ₹ 25,000.
“ I cannot afford high-grade plastic in shops. Similarly, in every business cheaper covers are used to retain freshness of flowers, vegetables, or food. Some flowers arrive in plastic packets from Namakkal and Hosur,” Ambika claims.
V.K Balu, president of the Coimbatore Plastic Manufacturers’ Association, said nearly 15 of over 100 plastic manufacturers went out of business here after the State announced ban on single use plastics in 2019 and none of the present companies produce polythene-based plastic.
“Such plastic products are illegally brought here from other States, mainly Gujarat and Puducherry,” he says.
Corporation Commissioner M. Prathap said, “There are no manufacturers of banned plastic items in Coimbatore. We will investigate to identify the middlemen and sellers of banned plastic items at the markets in the city. We also only imposed fines and did not take severe legal action on many vendors considering they are small businesses. Vendors are not supposed to buy single-use plastic products even though there are sellers. We will consider taking stricter actions against those flouting norms,” he said.
