from Hacker News

India shelves plan on countrywide ban on single-use plastic products

by ForFreedom on 10/2/19, 8:25 AM with 2 comments

• by Kaibeezy on 10/2/19, 10:20 AM

  The plan was for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to outlaw six items on Wednesday, the 150th anniversary of the birth of independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, as part of a broader campaign to rid India of single-use plastics by 2022.

  But it was seen as "too disruptive for industry", so instead:

  For now, government will ask states to enforce existing rules against storing, manufacturing and using some single-use plastic products such as polythene bags and styrofoam ... "There is no new ban order being issued ... Now, it's a question of telling people about the ill-effects of plastic, of collecting and sending for for recycling so people don't litter."

  Gandhi wept.

• by qasimzafar on 10/2/19, 9:05 AM

  Pakistan is also experimenting with something similar. Ambitious effort, but without the infrastructural help to shift to alternatives that's just not going to happen