Complete Plastic Ban an Opportunity for Swadeshi
The vocal for local, self-reliance and Atmanirbhar Bharat are the three keywords that should be the basis for the government to be reflected in every policy decision, for the society to defend the original values, and for the individual to choose their lifestyle. — Alok Singh
The vocal for local, self-reliance and Atmanirbhar Bharat are the three keywords that should be the basis for the government to be reflected in every policy decision, for the society to defend the original values, and for the individual to choose their lifestyle. The union government policy to ban the use of single-use plastic is an opportunity for the local business to discard the global business. A complete ban on all types of plastic will give an imaginable level of boost to local businesses.
The single-use plastic is one among the many culprits which have forced the population to compare the cheapest alternative. The reason for the people to look for the cheapest alternative is the strong necessity to save for them due to the lack of social security provided by the government. But things are changing. Today the government’s Ayushman Bharat is taking care of health security and a lot of other education and business-related financial security is available.
If we look today at our neighborhood grocery shop then we can visualize what we will miss if the single-use plastic ban is implemented everywhere, irrespective of the thickness of the plastic, other than for medical facilities. In the grocery shop, for example, we have today iodized salts packed in plastic bags. This is a single-use plastic as the same packet of salt is not recycled to reach the salt packaging industry again.
If we look at numerous other items in grocery shops today and compare them with the same items in grocery shops when plastic was not used for packaging, then the difference between the manufacturer and producer today with that of older time is visible. The eating habit has been changed by these plastics as plastic is cheap and convenient to transport. Another example is from the personal care industry. Plastic is an important component that has made it possible for shampoo manufacturers to provide a one rupee shampoo in remote villages and the repercussion is that the shampoo industry is dominated by a few multinational companies; indigenous companies like Patanjali are a nascent arrival.
If we ban plastic for the packaging of salts then the business of iodized salt promoters will be killed. The Supreme Court has banned the advertisement of iodized salt, facts say that less than two dozen districts out of 773 districts in our country have an iodine deficiency. But in the name of iodine fortification, the salt industry is ruled by few companies. If the plastic disappears from salt packaging then the logistics for these companies will be costly and there will be an opportunity for local salt manufacturers to restart the business. The salt consumption will give an opportunity for the wealth which is pocketed by a few to be shared by many stakeholders and in the process, lots of jobs will be revived. People consumed salts when it was not in plastic packets.
The government should come up with a policy that no food items whether in raw form or ready-to-eat form are packed in any variety of plastic irrespective of the thickness of plastic. If a particular geographical area needs a food-related item to be delivered from thousands of kilometers away from the point of consumption then the government should bear the transportation cost so that food inflation is controlled. These steps will revive the local food and local taste, which will ultimately create lots of jobs for local people and control the unplanned migration of people for survival. If we visit any tea shop or pan shop in any remote area then we find potato chips of five rupees hanging on their shelves, cold drinks of ten rupees in a plastic bottle, and the list goes on. These supplies are from big multinational companies. The substitute is the local chips and the local cold drinks served in earthen utensils or reusable glass utensils or any other metal utensils. Plastic has provided an opportunity for the big multinational companies to save the cost of reverse logistics as it suits the economies of the scale model and this model in turn favors one deep pocket at the cost of growth of many others.
The argument is that the single company dominating the whole market spread across millions of square kilometers will be threatened if the plastic of any variant is completely banned in the food supply chain. It will immediately revive the local business for ready-to-eat snacks and cold drinks. The entry of junk foods in village markets will be checked. These junk foods are killing local taste, local jobs, and health and finally causing a lot of damage to the environment.
The target of net-zero carbon emissions can be attained at an accelerated pace if the food is freed from all types of plastics. Plastic starts from the seed sold by multinationals in a plastic bag to the ready-to-eat items that are sold in plastic wraps. The fight for preserving local seeds and the necessity to preserve the local taste has arisen as plastics have empowered a few companies and they succeed to kill the local business.
Banning plastic from the food industry is the proxy to promote many things. This ban will support the cause of self-reliance on local taste, local food, AtmaNirbharta in organic farming, preserving traditional seeds, practicing traditional cooking ingredients, and many more including jobs and growth. The easy way is always dangerous, as there is no shortcut to success, then how can there be a shortcut to feed ourselves. We have to carry the cotton bag to the vegetable market, the vegetable seller has to carry a jute bag to bring the vegetable to the market, and the farmers have to practice growing organic food using traditional seeds and not sowing the genetically modified seeds sold in plastic packages, the farmers have to use the organic manures and not the chemical fertilizers supplied in plastic bags, the farmers have to seek help from laborers and not use the cancer-causing Glyphosate which comes in a plastic container to control the herbs and weeds.
The Covid-19 lockdown has taught us many lessons and at the same time provided many opportunities. We started living with face masks and so, we are in a practice to change habits and can accept a ban on plastics with more convenience. We aspire to provide a local job, earn local growth, and preserve local taste then a big NO to plastic in the food industry is the most effective tool. The government needs to act more on the plastic ban.
(Alok Singh is a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Management Indore, a freelancer academician, and associated with AGET Business School, Jhajjar.)
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