VIJAYAWADA: “We are looking for alternatives to plastic shopping bags. In order to make Vijayawada a plastic-free city, public and merchants should use water-soluble biodegradable carry bags,” said Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) Commissioner J Nivas during an awareness workshop on using biodegradable carry bags, conducted here on Friday.
Even though VMC banned the usage of plastic carry bags since January this year, not many people are abiding by the rule.To create awareness on the ill effects of polythene bags on the environment, Coimbatore-based company, Regeno Ventures Private Limited, organised a workshop for consumers, merchants, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) etc on Friday with the support of VMC.
Addressing the gathering, Cibhi Selvan Managing Director of Regeno Ventures Private Limited said, “We manufactured carry bags, which are made of tapioca. Currently, they are being used extensively in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The beauty of these carry bags is they are soluble in water and also burns like a paper. It is completely safe for the environment.”
He further said that this biodegradable carry bag can be filled with 6 kg of vegetables or groceries and these carry bags can carry weight of 20 kg.“Even if animals or birds or pets consume these carry bags nothing will happen as they can be digested too,” he added. The civic chief said, “Many times we wanted to impose a blanket ban on plastic carry bags and bring in alternatives like cloth bags, paper bags etc. But nothing yielded fruitful results. Now with these biodegradable carry bags, we can happily use carry bags with zero environment pollution as these can be degraded completely and effectively. Protecting environment for future generations is very important. Also we can curb pollution of water bodies by opting for biodegradable products. Soon the carry bags will be made available in Vijayawada city.”