It seems that the government is back on its commitment to ban once for all plastic bags. The decisions taken early this year was the outcome of a fantastic campaigning by civil society organizations under the leadership of Next Generation Nepal, one of the most successful activist group in the country.
I am not particularly fond of plastic bags but I believe that they deserve a proper farewell. I believe that they play an important role in the way we lived our lives. Now could you imagine what would have been living without plastic bags? They literally shape the way we live, they have been integral part of what we have been doing. In short plastic bags were a symbol of development and honestly speaking made our lives pretty easy.
The problem to me is not how bad plastic bags are. Just imagine how many lives plastic bags saved during the recent quakes. Would you imagine the rescue operations without plastic bags? Plastic was literally a game changer. Thousands of people were able to be reached out with humanitarian help that were delivered in plastic bags.
By nature I do not like banning things. I always prefer having options on the table and persuade people to change their behaviors. Experts call this nudging, using little “tricks” to enhance people’s attitudes and ways of living. It is all about the power of persuasion and capacity to influence people’s mindset for a common good. In short a person can be influenced towards a certain way of behavior if certain “nudges” are in place. You want to encourage persons to eat more healthy food, then you can encourage restaurants to highlight in their menus, food items that are more healthy then others. It is a bit a paternalistic approach after all but the overall aim, encouraging better social outcomes, justifies the means.
In short you are persuaded or tricked to choose something that in other circumstances you would have not opted for. It is a classic “aim justifies the means”.
I am wondering if a nudging approach would have been possible also to make space to a new and better way to use plastic bags. After all we all know that smoking is a killer but while legislations all over the world are trying to make it more and more difficult for people to smoke (higher cigarette prices, scary pictorial warnings, space limitations on where you can smoke), still people have the chance to kill themselves by lightening up a cigarette. It is really up to them.
Now would this approach have worked for plastic bags? Would an awareness or better an public education campaign have brought any changes in the people’s attitudes and behaviors towards plastic bags or better towards smarter ways of using them? Could folks have started thinking a little more in depth about recycling plastic bags? Surely they would have if there was a smarter pricing policy where shops charge for the use of the plastic bags.
A better use of plastic bags, the outcome of this more gradual approach should not be considered as the ultimate goal itself. Rather this could have been a tactical way to deal with the plastic problem, an intermediate step towards full ban.
Maybe I am totally wrong. Maybe only drastic actions can lead to a real impact: cleaner communities, free of plastics. Yet I am skeptical about one thing: a ban still does not change or improve peoples’ attitudes towards the environment.
You can have people abiding to the ban because there are not any other options ( I guess this will depend on the cooperation with store owners or better enforcement of the ban on them), you can have thousands of people cleaning every week end the Bagmati River but still you have millions of people who are really negligent in matter of environment. They throw everything on the streets without any concerns. They grow up with in this way, they are simply careless. I am afraid their attitudes should be the ones to be banned and not just the plastic bags.
Said this, I wrap up with “Thank you plastic bag and good bye”
If you know some “controversial” opinion on bans on plastic bags, http://www.justfactsdaily.com/bans-on-plastic-bags-harm-the-environment/
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