Visakhapatnam: Audience pose interesting questions to judges at meet on plastic menace

What about all the trees that will have to be cut down for paper bags, asks one

Rajeswari, a student associated with the Free Legal Aid Cell of Andhra University, made heads turn at the AU Convention Hall on Thursday as she posed the first question to Supreme Court Justice Uday Umesh Lalit during an interactive session at the end of a meeting on plastic menace.

“Everyone is advocating the ban on plastic, but what will happen to the thousands of trees which will have to be axed to produce thousands of tonnes of paper for making paper bags, which will replace the plastic bags?” Ms. Rajeswari asked.

Justice Lalit explained: “In many of the western countries, instead of steel and cement, thousands of tonnes of wood is used every year to construct houses. Many trees are cut down for this purpose. Saplings are planted in large numbers to compensate for the loss of trees. We can grow trees to replace the ones that are cut down but metals are non-renewable resources and once mined, they cannot be regenerated.”

Responding to another query, Justice Lalit recalled how 10,000 public transport buses running on diesel in Delhi were converted to CNG.

“Many articles of daily use are being replaced by plastic. Soft drinks, which used to be supplied in glass bottles, are now being supplied in plastic bottles. Here, the citizens have a choice and can refuse to buy plastic bottles. The manufacturers would be forced to convert to tins,” he opined.

A member from the audience wondered how the organisers could use plastic banners when the programme was on ‘Say no to plastic’. He was caught on the wrong foot when GVMC Commissioner G. Lakshmisha replied that the banners were made of cloth and the flexis were made of paper.