Vasco: India's Plastic-Free Town
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA 
on 05.23.06
In an attempt to avoid the above scenes, a town in India has gone plastic-free. Vasco (shortened from Vasco de Gama), a city in Goa state on the west coast of India, has been the first council to implement the "Zero Garbage Town Scheme" following a high court judgment in late 2003. The scheme was launched on January 26 of this year; in anticipation of the difficulty that the ban would bring, many incentives have been built in to the system. Jute and paper bags have been distributed free of charge, citizens are awarded one liter of milk for free for every 100 empty milk packets returned, and 20 women living below the poverty line have been employed to help collect plastics. The ban on plastics has been strictly enforced; 20 businesses have been fined for violating the new edict. It seems most citizens in Vasco support the idea, though difficulty arises in finding suitable alternatives for things like large volume garbage bags and other supplies that have traditionally been plastic. Still, with both the government and the majority of citizens behind the idea, it seems they're off to a great start. ::DaijiWorld via ::Hugg (site in Beta)
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In a similar vein, GoodNewsIndia reports that next door in Nagpur they are recycling plastic into fuel. And that pretty soon they'll be exceeding the amount of plastic trash produced there, necessitating expansion.
wasn't plastic invented after WWII? Have we become that dependant on it in 50 odd years?
Petroleum-based plastics became popular after WWII, AFAIK, but we had plastics before that.
"wasn't plastic invented after WWII? Have we become that dependant on it in 50 odd years?"
I can't look anywhere in my office without seeing plastic.. that doesn't even count whats behind the things I'm looking at in drawers under stacks of paper. We could more easily give up cars then we could plastic. The sad thing is we could use a lot less in terms of packaging if everyone just cared whether or not they were using it.. grocery bags for example WOW
The Samoan government was due to introduce a ban on plastic bags and other 'unnecessary' plastic items in April this year (I assume it's actually happened). There are plenty of viable alternatives as the Samoa Observer states:
"Plastic bags, after all, only came into widespread usage about a decade ago.
"Before that, the flax-woven basket (ato laufala) or sewn grocery cloth sacks were a common hand-carry for women when they come to town to do some shopping.
"Sugar, rice and salt came in brown paper bags while meats and fish were wrapped with newspaper.
"At funerals and weddings, food was served on disposable mailo (coconut frond plates), and ta'ita'i (food presentation) came in a coconut basket.
"Beer and soft drinks were sold exclusively in glass bottles, with a refund if the bottle was returned. This ensured that any bottle discarded was immediately scooped up. There were no plastic-bottled water or sodas."
What you're seeing here are lots of water bottles. Root problems go back to simply not having drinkable tap/spring water available, and no nearby recycling facilities. This is where biopolymers, like PLA, would be most useful. They are already in mainstream use, and eventually they biodegrade.
I just came back from 5 weeks in India and was delighted to see signs in many many towns and outside some army bases saying 'polythene free area' or words to that effect. India is recognizing quickly that plastics are not a packaging solution.
I need free video clip for Plastic usage awareness
Recently I visited Kolkata, There I see many shops are not willing to Give a plastic Bags... Small city Darjeeling is almost free of this plastic few yr back. Good gesture.
But Being in Bangalore a Hi-tech City Still no awareness. Every Shop/Resturant/Shopping mall/vegetable market are using plastic heavily.
When we educated it people will become more awareness.