Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

Occasionally, I keep my impulse to see the world in a grain of plastic in check and buy stuff from push-cart vendors, carrying them back in plastic bags. (Sometimes it’s grapes and oranges, sometimes it’s fresh vegetables, especially greens). 

Now, such vendors being pushed against the wall in the name of a single-use plastic ban is unfair, especially when neither users like me nor large petrochemical producers bear the brunt. 

From Chennai to Krishnagiri to Dehradun to sundry other remote towns and cities, civic bodies are cracking the whip on single-use plastics. 

Last week, the Greater Chennai Corporation told the Madras High Court that its officials had seized 20 tons of banned single-use plastics between 19 August, 2021, and 18 March, 2022. The authorities collected a total of Rs 36.5 lakh (US$48,000) in fines during this period from those violating the single-use plastic ban. The city corporation also told the court that shops which repeatedly sell goods in such plastic bags will be “liable for trade licence cancellation, besides closure, and sealing”. 

Penal action everywhere is being taken against such downstream users or small-time plastic product makers.