However, in the absence of clear directions from the court on how to dispose them off, all are clueless what to do with them! As has been often repeated by environmental experts, polythene or plastic of any kind can neither be buried nor burnt safely. On being buried, they do not disintegrate for a 1000 years, and on being set on fire, they release harmful dioxin and furan gases which cause cancer in humans.

An officer in the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) said, "We will most probably just dump them in our landfills, Narela-Bawana or Okhla. Few more kilos of plastic in the trash mountains won't make a difference. But we are also mulling putting them into our Waste to Energy plants, which produce Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) from plastic," he said.

POLYTHENE COULD HAVE BEEN SOLD OFF

Another officer said, "We know that there is no solution to plastic, but currently this action is focused on driving home the message that polythene must not be used. We want to tell everyone that if you are caught with polythene less than 50 microns, we have the power to challan you Rs5000." Some officers expressed the fear that several kilos of polythene may have already been routed out of Delhi and will be sold in markets of UP, Punjab and Haryana as wholesale traders will not bear a loss. "We found many shops under lock and key when we raided them yesterday," an officer confided.

The SDMC reported collecting 571.20 kg of polythene and a fine amount of Rs 2.70 lakh till Monday. The North MCD also said it has collected 450 kg of polythene after raiding several markets in its jurisdiction like Khursheed Market in Sadar Bazar, Paharganj, Shastri Nagar, Green Market, etc. As per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India generates 56 lakh tonnes of plastic waste annually with Delhi accounting for a huge 689.5 tonnes daily. As 40 per cent of the plastic waste is not recycled, the daily addition to untreated plastic in city is estimated at 275.6 tonnes.

DON'T BURN PLASTIC!

These either swamp Delhi's landfills in Okhla, Bhalswa or Ghazipur or choke sewers. Anu Agrawal of NGO, Toxics Link, said, "Burning of plastic has a catastrophic effect on the environment and health of people. It produces POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants), which are identified by the UN as carcinogens. Then tend to store in the fatty tissues of the body and cause cancer later on."

"Dioxin and furan gases, produced by PVC, increase in concentration at each level of the food chain. Therefore, non-vegetarians, who consume fish, chicken or meat, are at a very high risk. Nursing infants, who have breast milk which is a breakdown component of a woman's fatty tissues, are most vulnerable," she added. Chitra Mukherjee of NGO Chintan said, "The only way to stop this is to segregate at source and make sure that plastics are reused and recycled and not burnt. Incineration is no solution at all."