As dawn breaks, there is a steady stream of customers at Muhammed’s tea shop in Chennai. As they arrive, he serves them tea in glass tumblers. However, one customer insists on a paper cup for hygiene reasons, despite Muhammed explaining that the glass tumblers are washed and sterilised with hot water.

Glass tumblers cost around Rs 20 each and can be reused hundreds of times until they break. In contrast, paper cups cost Rs 100 for 50 cups (Rs 2 per cup) and are neither reusable nor environment-friendly. “Though plastic-coated paper cups are banned, we can’t avoid using them when customers demand,” Muhammed says.

Despite vendors like Muhammed investing in eco-friendly options, the state-wide ban on single-use plastic items has not been very effective. Manufacturers of eco-friendly packaging also face challenges, as they receive no government incentives to promote green products while bearing the extra costs.

Single-use plastic available despite ban

The Tamil Nadu government banned single-use plastic products on January 1, 2019. Yet, a recent study conducted by Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG) finds that while 86% of market vendors are aware of the ban on single-use plastic products, 85% of them continue to use single-use plastic bags.

Two years after the ban, the Tamil Nadu government launched the flagship campaign, Meendum Manjapai, in 2021 to promote the use of cloth bags. A study conducted by Madhuvanthi Rajkumar, a researcher with CAG, aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the Meendum Manjappai campaign two years after its inception.

The study found that 93% of respondents believed alternative materials are safer than single-use plastics, and 94% affirmed they would be willing to avoid single-use plastics and use alternative materials.

Why do people still use single-use plastic?

But, there are many hurdles to switching to eco-friendly alternatives. Like Muhammed, Murugan, a sugarcane juice vendor says that customers are reluctant to try green alternatives. “The normal paper cups get soggy when the juice is poured into it. So, I use the plastic-coated cups. These are easily available in the market,” Murugan says.

According to the government order passed by the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Forests, here is the list of banned plastic products:

Though these products are banned, we find them used predominantly.

Read more: Waste segregation requires participation from all stakeholders: Chennai Corporation Commissioner

Challenges faced by those trying to opt for alternatives

“Plastic is durable and does not have limitations. The eco-friendly alternatives do not have the same properties but the market expectation is for eco-friendly products to be similar to plastic. It is hard to produce a replica of plastic in any other material. This is a huge challenge for manufacturers of eco-friendly packaging products,” says Dilip Srinivasan, a social entrepreneur who works on eco-friendly packaging.

After a point, alternatives like paper, aluminium or biopolymers will start reacting with the products packed inside (like how paper bags tend to absorb moisture). This will reduce the shelf life of the products.

In the past, people used to receive products from shops wrapped in paper based on the quantity they requested. The need for plastic arose when the distribution network expanded, increasing the demand for longer shelf life of products.

Those who can bypass this distribution network and deal directly with consumers can opt for eco-friendly options. However, they face another set of challenges.

High cost and need for durability

Vembu Rajan Subramanian, Founder of Fresh Millers, uses eco-friendly paper bags for packaging. His store sells flour and other food products directly to consumers, so the need for packaging is only between the shop and the consumer’s home. They pack the products in paper bags and instruct consumers to transfer the contents into containers soon after purchase.

“It is challenging to find alternatives for sealing the paper bags. We give them to a separate NGO now. This increases the cost by at least 30% for us. If we have to come closer to the durability of plastic, then the cost goes further up and we have to pay for the increase,” he says.

Need for government to encourage alternatives

There is also a difference in the cost of raw materials. According to Dilip, raw materials for manufacturing plastic are widely available in the market as it is a byproduct of petroleum. There is both ample demand and supply of these materials. It is not the same of sustainable products, as the raw materials for these cost much more.

For instance, an alternative packaging material for hoteliers would cost Rs 15 more than the plastic material. “However, the government does not take into account that when the hoteliers use eco-friendly alternatives, they increase the price of the products in the hotel. This cost is passed on to the consumer. Except for conducting a couple of exhibitions on eco-friendly packaging, the government has not taken any steps to encourage the alternatives. They neither address these nuances in costing,” he says.

Those who opt for eco-friendly packaging in the food industry are seen using plastic-coated paper materials. While they look like normal paper, they are conditioned with plastic coating to prevent the absorption of oil and moisture.

Dilip points out that there are a lot of products like plastic-coated paper bags and cardboard boxes (used for packing tea/coffee in many branded outlets) that are not biodegradable but are marketed as eco-friendly.”These materials are more harmful as they disintegrate as microplastic. The government does not have any regulatory mechanism to monitor these issues,” he says.

Read more: Chennai’s source segregation woes: No time to waste

Policy-level loopholes leave branded companies unquestioned

A consumer, Karthik, asks what is the use of banning single-use plastic bags when the products that we buy from the supermarkets come packed in multi-layered plastic that is not recyclable. “I do carry a cloth bag when I go to the grocery stores and supermarkets. Take any essential product — be it toor dal, biscuit packets or milk — do they come in eco-friendly packaging?” he asks.

While the government does not actively implement the ban, it levies fines on street vendors and small-scale shopkeepers. “How is this fair?” asks Sumathi, a flower shop vendor.

“The government does not question the plastic packaging of branded products as it comes under the industrial packaging sector and not consumer packaging. This is a policy-level loophole,” notes Dilip.

Milk packets are a typical example of government apathy. “If the authorities can sell liquor in glass bottles, they can do the same for milk, except that they do not have the political will to do it,” he adds.

He also points out that changing to cloth bags is not going to reduce plastic waste to a large extent. “It is only pinning responsibility on the individual consumers whereas the problem here is not the cloth bag in which you carry the groceries. It is the plastic packaging in which the products are sold. The core issue is not addressed but it is wrapped in a cloth bag,” he says.

Unpacking is the way forward

“Packaging in any material is not a solution. Unpacking is the solution. Packaging comes with bigger criteria like longer shelf life and longer mileage of transportation etc. Alternative packaging is not a solution at all. It will help only in the transitional phase,” notes Dilip.

The long-term solution is to unpack things, reduce food mileage, decentralise the markets, and create a local economy market so that the products do not require packaging. The functioning of a local tea shop is the best example of this. The cookies and cakes are refilled in the jar by the local bakers. Glass is washed in hot water and reused for serving the tea.

The government does not give any incentives to those who manufacture and use eco-friendly packaging. “If the government wants to promote more alternative packaging, they will have to provide subsidies. Bringing in regulations is one way but incentivising eco-friendly packaging will encourage more people to opt for it,” says Vembu Rajan.

Despite several attempts to contact officials from the Department of Environment and Climate Change, we did not get a favourable response.

Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG) has a crowdsourced database of zero-waste stores across Tamil Nadu. The list of zero-waste stores in Chennai can be accessed here.

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