[ruzbehxyz]

Sikkim, in an effort to go green, has decided to ban packaged mineral water bottles made of plastic in the upcoming year.

The Himalayan state of Sikkim has decided to put an end to damage to the environment caused by these plastic water bottles. Sikkim Chief Minister PS Tamang on Saturday said announced that packaged drinking water is being banned in the state from January 1, 2022.

The move to ban plastic water bottles in Sikkim will have a good impact on the environment of the state. While making the announcement, CM Tamang also stated that the state is "blessed with natural resources that provide fresh and good quality drinking water".

Sikkim CM Tamang addressed the state on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti and said that once the ban on plastic bottles is implemented, the people in the state will opt for water from natural resources, which is far healthier than that available in plastic bottles.

Source: https://www.dnaindia.com/india/repor...y-2022-2913907

[SupratikDebnath]

I am not sure how this will work out practically.
We might see the Milton Kool Kegs back in business to carry water during trips!

Is Sikkim government planning on solidifying the infrastructure such that tourists (majorly) get access to clean drinking water - say every 20 km in remote sections?

I feel that refilling personal bottles directly from natural resources is far-fetched.

[Sran]

Jharkhand became the 1st state of India to ban styorofoam in 2016. For a good 3 years it went well. From last year and a half, styorofoam is back in Jharkhand with a big bang. Eatries in cities like Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Dhanbad are too happy to serve in those harmful plates. Everywhere there are Sal trees and their leaves have been used to serve food for centuries, if not fresh then in form of pattal.

In Bihar Polythene bags under 40 microns were banned in 2018. Went well for an year and now it is back as if it was never ever banned.

In maharshtra, plastic bags, thermocol and plastic bottles was banned in 2018. Nothing changed, not even a bit, even when the fine was Rs5000. People do not want to listen and oblige.

Plastic dusposable water bottles and styorofoam plates can not be stopped till government is very strict. We had pattal, how did we switched to styorofoam plates? Pattal went from "most hygenic form of plate" to "cheap" real fast and fell out of fashion. Styrofoam was costly so it was deemed good and became in vogue. We used to serve water in "kullhad"(tumbler made from baked mud). It was clean, hygenic and disposable. We switched to steel glasses and then to plastic disposable bottles. We ruined our own environment in trying to ape the west. Now we are back to square one. Just like we were laughed for using neem for its versatile usage and switched to chemical products. Now all MNC's, after preaching us for decaded that neem was useless, are selling us same neem in their packaging.

Disposable plastic bottles can not be stopped unless clean and hygenic source of drinking water is provided at all places. Handpumps should make a comeback and municipalities should place them at every 2 kms. If not for rich folks then for humanity. I hope Sikkim govt. opens drinking water fountains at evey major place. It is the only way to end this menance.

[Kosfactor]

Nilgiris Dt in Tamilnadu has been doing such things from the early 2000s. From a few years ago even packaged drinking water bottles are not available. Your vehicle is inspected as you enter the district for single use plastics as well. Munnar part of Idukki Dt in Kerala as well had such measures, not sure if they still do but Nilgiris they sure do.

Statewide measures like banning plastic drinking water bottles is a bit extreme, wonder what is the alternative.

[deathwalkr]

We used to sell PET Bottles sometime back and the negative drive by the government killed that business. School children were asked to take steel bottles to school and shops were raided by local corporation officials and fined for selling plastic bottles.

Now i understand the sheer impact that single use plastic has on the environment but banning just one aspect really does not solve much.

Soft drink bottles, alcohol bottles, medicine bottles etc are all single use products which goes on unhindered.

There was discussions going on how to provide an alternative to another large plastic menace, the milk covers, but again nothing happened.

Remember a joke (?) that said when plastic covers were first introduced, the caption was to avoid paper bags to save trees and to go for plastic covers.

Now we are back to paper bags.

[dragonfire]

These bans make good headlines but the only ones who stand to gain are the ones who extract political mileage from it.

Passing a law is easy, implementing it is difficult. Even more difficult is to put alternate solutions in place. There are no viable and cost-effective alternatives to plastic. If one is invented/discovered usage of plastic will go down without the need for any ban.

Govts should exploring the possibility of incentivizing alternate solutions than going for an outright ban.

[am1m]

My wife and I travelled all over the country in 2016, taking a year off from work. We made a conscious decision not to buy packaged drinking water anywhere, carried those metal bottles from decathlon. I can tell you that we had absolutely no issues anywhere getting clean drinking water and this includes places in the Northeast - Sikkim, Nagaland, Mizoram. And anywhere else- the Andamans, Ladakh, wherever. We filled bottles at Railway stations, at restaurants we ate at, at lodges we stayed at. Never had stomach issues even once. Never had to directly use a natural source, most places where we ate at anyway needed to boil tap water to prepare food, so we'd just fill that. The worst places are the restaurants at heavily touristy destinations like Goa and Hampi, where by default they will ask you to buy plastic bottles of water and refuse to serve 'normal' water. In such places, we'd say that we were willing to pay for boiled water from the kitchen, equivalent to the price of a plastic bottle. But from recent trips, happy to see that the concept of 'paid water refills' is catching on there as well.

We're still using those metal bottles today, though they've got a few dents and it's time to replace them. Every week, we just clean them out with boiling water.

So yes, it's certainly possible. Just take a look at the number of bottles piled up as garbage in these tourist places, including formerly pristine streams, beaches and hiking trails and you'll feel like making the effort! (I've had to crop out plastic chips packets from photos of a leopard on the forest floor in Ranthambore!) Sitting in the hotel, and just driving from place to place, most of us don't get to see that. It's a problem of gigantic proportions and the solution is to stop sales of these and also other plastic packaging at least in places that want to preserve their natural beauty.

[deathwalkr]

Would a proper and easily accessible recycling option be viable?

I remember the local MP here inaugurated a small plastic bottle recycler at the railway station here, by the evening it was jammed pack with bottles and stopped working.

So the willingness from the traveler is there. Just needs a working solution perhaps?

[DicKy]

Off topic.

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

Nilgiris Dt in Tamilnadu has been doing such things from the early 2000s. From a few years ago even packaged drinking water bottles are not available... but Nilgiris they sure do.

Noticed it as my buddy is posted in Coonoor and I stay there for a few days from time to time.

No plastic bags, but we are used to carrying our own bags for shopping back home, so no big deal. Didn't bother much for packaged water bottles, we carry our own water, not sure how tourists cope up with. But what really bothers is the absence of carbonated drinks in PET bottles. No PET bottles for Pepsi, 7up and the kind. But all are available in tin cans. Fair enough. But just across the rack you can find fruit juices, non carbonated drinks being sold in PET bottles. So what's the deal?

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by ruzbehxyz

Sikkim, in an effort to go green, has decided to ban packaged mineral water bottles made of plastic in the upcoming year.

Why ban plastic bottles? By introducing a container deposit, people will return the bottles back to the shop for their money back. The deposit should be big enough to make people want to get their money back.

For those who dont care and throw away the bottles, kids will be picking them up to get the deposit. I just read a few days ago about a 10 year old boy collected 5000 euros from bottles.
Every bottle or can is marked with a sign. This one pays 20 euro cents. Bigger bottles pay 30. 99% of cans and plastic bottles are being returned today.


Norway has had this deposit since 1902 on glass bottles and this carried on with the plastic bottles about 30 years ago. All supermarkets have reverse vending machines that accepts all sorts of bottles and cans. A slip is issued and you can get your money back or use it to pay for purchase.

[Everlearner]

It is definitely doable but will require political will and public awareness. Even if not 100%, a large portion of single use plastic consumption can be avoided.

Forget travel, buying bottled water is a fashion in today's many restaurants even though they have good water filters. They also encourage this since they get more business.

[GrammarNazi]

If not for the plastic pollution, but simply for the obscene concept of "premium" brands for something as basic as water, I support this ban.

At the same time, I hope the Govts don't use this as an excuse to build RO water kiosks.

[antz.bin]

I remember when I had gone to Ladakh on my bike many years back, nowhere could I buy any mineral water bottles. Nobody sold them.

The only option was to have the ones I already had refilled. Restaurants were always happy to oblige. It was easy to refill practically anywhere when traveling since most natural waterfalls were absolutely crystal clean. I regularly drank waterfall water. Cool and sweet to taste.

Haven't been to Sikkim but I have always trusted Himalayan waterfall water for drinking. I think this decision will age well. Sikkim has been a pioneer in other green initiatives as well, this, methinks will also be well accepted.

[anjan_c2007]

Sikkim people follow such rules imposed by the state government rigidly. The law enforcement is the best in India I feel as compared to any other state or union territory. When disposable plastic bags were banned more than fifteen years back, there were no traces of such carry bags or bags left anywhere in the whole state. No one dared to use these in public places and the plastic bag riddance measure has been a grand success. I was in Gangtok during 2005-06 and have seen the ban effective in person, always praising Sikkim for taking the lead with banning disposable plastic bags. Many other states and union territories have banned plastic bags since though, but enforcements are lackadaisical and people use these on the sly. There are undetected, small, flourishing factories where these are manufactured too on the sly.

Since now plastic bottles are getting banned wef Jan 2022 the law enforcement agencies will duly enforce the ban and the public will also cooperate.

Comparing Sikkim and Darjeeling, for the Kolkatans and many others Darjeeling is a dream destination for the holidays. But the Himalayan hill slopes in and around Darjeeling are littered with waste, refuse and plastics of all sorts. One does not find such uncared wastes dumped anywhere in the entire state of Sikkim. I would any day prefer Sikkim as a holiday destination over Darjeeling.

But there needs to be viable alternatives for plastic bottles that can be suggested by the Sikkim government. Glass or metallic bottles are impractical for day to day usage. And many just carry water to their workplaces or other destinations in maybe, not brand new but used plastic bottles.

[avi_swift]

I wholeheartedly support this ban and hope this spreads to other states as well, as unlikely as it may sound. The sooner we realize the perils of plastic, the better it is for everyone. Almost all Indian cities are littered with waste plastic, but its more harmful in the Himalayas, which are supposed to be ecologically fragile. Forget cities like Shimla, Nainital etc., if you have even been on a trek to places like KheerGanga, Hemkund Sahib, you will know what I'm talking about. All sort of waste plastic bottles (Coke to Aquafina) along with other trash like chips packet, chewing gum wrappers, torn ponchos line the path. Not only does it look filthy, I'm sure its quite harmful to the environment as well. The only 'clean' areas are those that are difficult to reach and you need a guide, like Hampta Pass, Rupin pass etc., but I have seen occasional non biodegradable trash in these treks as well (collected them for disposal whenever feasible). From a recent trip to Sikkim, I can vouch for the fact that its definitely much much cleaner.

I, personally, always carry water bottles. During tours, I fill them from hotels and while on treks, I fill them from streams/water falls etc. Till now, I have never fallen sick due to water. Everybody can do this and if paranoid, can use a purifier like Zeoline or use a water bottle with an inbuilt filter.

Originally Posted by Indian2003

Why ban plastic bottles? By introducing a container deposit, people will return the bottles back to the shop for their money back. The deposit should be big enough to make people want to get their money back.

I beg to disagree. This deposit can be introduced on glass bottles, metal cans as well. The financial incentive will be greater in these cases since they're more expensive. I believe we should take all possible steps to ban a non biodegradable material like plastic. Also, do remember that in Sikkim, as in other hilly areas, people may throw waste down a valley from where it will be almost impossible to retrieve them, with or without financial incentives.

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

Sikkim people follow such rules imposed by the state government rigidly.

Sadly, people flout these rules on the sly. I was in Sikkim in September, and in Lachung (North Sikkim), I saw the cook of our homestay returning with something big wrapped in newspaper. I started chatting with him and he told me it was chicken for dinner. He told that there police will fine him if they see him carrying stuff in plastic, hence the newspaper. However, when he started unwrapping, I saw that the chicken was placed in a plastic packet which was then wrapped with papers. The cook told me since the papers stick to the meat, they have devised this way to flout the ban. I agree carrying chicken wrapped in newspapers is not feasible, but the people must be made aware that the solution must be to carry some container during shopping. There were dozens of stuff in his kitchen which he could have used to carry the chicken. However, I was happy to note that at least the police implement the ban on plastic seriously, even if people find ways to flout them.