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Nate
: ?I was delighted to find online this short animation, which is discussed at length in Jeffrey L. Meikle's book American Plastic: A Cultural History. It's a wonderful reminder of how the associations with a cultural good—particularly one as plastic as, well, plastics, change over time: in 1944, plastic was mockable as shoddy, junky, and—here's the real surprise—the realm of do-it-yourselfers and backyard alchemists. It was hyped as the product of the future, but "such visions melted away as quickly as Donald Duck's plastic plane when exposed to the reality of shoddy home-front plastics. By portraying plastic as a so-called miracle material that dissolved in contact with water, Disney animators relied on the audience's familiarity with similar catastrophes—with plastic sink strainers that melted in hot water or buttons that became greasy blobs at the dry cleaners." (The book's introduction is also fascinating: for some reason I'd never thought to hear the famous line from The Graduate—"Just one word...Plastics..."—as anthing more than just good solid late–'60s career advice.)?Nate
: ?The Indian capital bans plastic bags—just like San Francisco, except the regulation seems to be a lot further-reaching (besides covering millions more residents). Evidently Rwanda, Bhutan, and Bangladesh already have similar laws.?Carry a plastic bag in Delhi and you could be imprisoned for five years. Officials in India’s capital have decided that the only way to stem the rising tide of polythene is to outlaw the plastic shopping bag.
According to the official note, the “use, storage and sale” of plastic bags of any kind or thickness will be banned. The new guideline means that customers, shopkeepers, hoteliers and hospital staff face a 100,000 rupee fine (£1,370) and a possible jail sentence for using non-biodegradable bags….
Civil servants said that punitive measures were needed after a law prohibiting all but the thinnest plastic bags – no thicker than 0.04mm – was ignored.
Although the government had originally concluded that plastic bags were too cheap and convenient to be disposed of, the authorities appear to have been swayed by environmentalists who pointed out that used bags were clogging drains and so providing breeding grounds for malaria and dengue fever. There is evidence that prohibition of plastic bags can work. Countries such as Rwanda, Bhutan and Bangladesh have all had bans enforced.