Community’s ‘extra’ effort to curtail use of plastic carry bags

The Abhiramapuram Neighbourhood Residents’ Association is on a quest to encourage buyers and shoppers to get their own bags through a novel method - Bag Banks - outside the stores in the locality, from where those with extra bags can donate them and those who need can pick them up. 

Placards have been put up in front of shops saying, ‘Need a bag? Take one” and “Have extra bags? Drop here’. The effort is aimed at discouraging shoppers from asking for an extra cover. 

Sushi Natraj, a member of the Abhiramapuram Neighbourhood Residents’ Association (AbhiNeRA), says, “The bag bank is a plan to ensure that no one asks for an extra cover and the same set of bags is circulated.” The association, which is barely a year old, has been focusing on sensitising residents, an approximate 200 families, to eco-friendly measures. In early April, a campaign run in the locality aimed at creating awareness to ensure that residents carried their own bags for shopping. The initiative evoked an overwhelming response from the outlets. For the bank, the criteria are that only clean and sturdy bags are donated. “They can be plastic, or any recyclable material,” says Sushi. 

The bank is placed outside shops selling grocery in the neighbourhood. Sushi said there has been mixed response to the present exercise. “However, we want to continue with the bank till it becomes a habit among residents and no shops have to store bags,” she says. An outlet of Ambika Appalam in the locality has been seeing a positive change among its customers. One of the staff at the outlet said, “Earlier, many of them used to ask for extra bags. After the introduction of bag bank, they are bringing one with them.” 

V Santhosh Kumar, secretary of Mandaveli Raja Street Residents Welfare Association, where the citizens are working towards ensuring that the area needs no dustbins, is mulling over an initiative to promote use of cloth bags. “If we have just four or five eco-friendly bags for all purposes per household, we can ensure plastic never enters the landfills. These bags last longer too. I have seen a similar initiative in Masinagudi, it can work wonders in Chennai, too.”