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Comment by geodel | Hacker News Reader

I do not see any coverage in Indian media. Could it be one of those official notifications which public at large hardly follows but it breeds corruption by enforcement officials. Though looking at Indian papers I came across this rather frightening news:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/pollutio...

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The ban has been active in Bangalore since March, 2016 [1] and in Mangalore for much longer [2]

I was surprised to learn Delhi did not have such a ban so far

[1] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/Total-plas...

[2] http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/mangalore-bans...

>The ban has been active in Bangalore since March, 2016 [1] and in Mangalore for much longer [2]

It is not enforced though. I'm living in Bangalore and shopkeepers still give me plastic bags all the time. Banning something, or passing a law is only half the battle; enforcing them is the real issue. And you cannot enforce the laws because corruption is so wide and rampant in India that nothing can be done about it, or so it feels.

That is how India rolls. I am not sure how the poor street food vendors survive if they cant use plastic plates and spoons. If they are forced to use steel plates and spoons that is a health and safety nightmare in India.

There are plenty of cost effective traditional alternatives. Banana leaves, hand made leaf plates, machine made leaf plates, in the worst case paper plates.

Plastics are just convenient and cheap, if the environmental costs are not considered.

Edible cutlery http://www.bakeys.com/

Banana leaves may be traditional and popular in southern India where banana grows aplenty. In Delhi banana leaves would be used in chic restaurants with traditional touch. It is no way going to be used by street vendors.

I have normally seen steel plates/spoon used by street vendors. Not very hygienic as they just rinse in water after use.

When I visited Nepal, a lot of the street vendors had these bowls made of leaves (perhaps banana leaf, not really sure). I have no idea if they are financially better off or cost effective but thought I'd mention that I've seen something like this before.

Street phuchka vendors in Kolkata (they are what you call golgappas in Delhi) will hand you bowls made out of sal leaves. I wonder if that's the same as what you came across?

https://billandpaige.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/dsc_6462.jp...

That looks vaguely right. I remember it being a bit more richer green look to it but the shape and everything looks about right.

Yeah, that's when they're fresh.

I think using dried leaves saves the trouble of having to pick them off the tree because they just fall to the ground, but I'm a city boy and wouldn't know for sure. Might have to ask my father! :)

I buy it on regular basis for religious functions as we don't use plastic in religious ceremonies to the extent possible. These alternatives are nearly 3 times more expensive and availability is a real issue. Not to mention the environmental impact of breaking branches of trees to get leaves quickly.

Yeah, many of bowls/plates are made up of mango tree leaves. All my childhood I have eaten village feasts on those leaves plates and earthen bowls for gravy/yogurt.

North india also uses leaf plates, which upon usage, are normally disposed by feeding them to cattle (in villages, this is very common)

Your idea of "cost effective" is quite different from an Indian street vendor.

Many of those alternatives are significantly more expensive than plastic and might be simply unavailable in Delhi.

Betel leaves work for the Pann wallah, but I'm not sure I want my pekoras the same way...

You have it backwards... the poor vendors can't afford a stock of disposable plates. They're the ones who give you something into the hand, or on a tin plate. You have to remember what "poor" means there.

>>If they are forced to use steel plates and spoons that is a health and safety nightmare in India.

This is one more of those things which we as current generation kids have grown into.

When I was a kid traditional muslim marriages used glass tumblers in marriage lunches. Which used be rinsed in a common drum by guy who would have barely bathed in a month. I remember we barely used to fall ill in those days. We used to play in mud, eat mangoes plucked from trees, spun out glass sharpened thread for kites, play marbles, eat tamarind from trees and drink from the municipal tap in the playground.

We mixed with dirt and infection is a way our immune systems were trained well.

Today apparently people can't walk across the street without catching cold.

As a anecdote, only recently I visited a house warming ceremony they were only rinsing plates(not washing) after each batch finished eating. To make it worse, people were washing their hands post lunch at the same place they were rinsing. The cafeteria lunch eating sterile programmer in me refused to even eat there. But every other person who was there, including my own family had no problems at all.

Its just a frame of mind.

> We mixed with dirt and infection is a way our immune systems were trained well.

Immunity to natural infections is different. In places like Delhi or Mumbai a lot of water sources are polluted by some serious chemical toxins like mercury, arsenic and what not.

It's been quite some time I ate at street vendors there. In past they would invariably have steel plates/spoons and wash after use. I imagine at least in past it was quite cheaper as compare to plastic/paper wares.

They could use the cups or plates made from leaves - it is called dona/donnai in India, I am not sure what it is exactly made of.

one of the road side sweet corn shacks, was giving throwaway steel spoons (thicker and stiffer than aluminium foil, but super thin). It felt weird throwing it in trash.

I think there's been a noticable difference due to this rule. Including change in people's behavior (in using plastic bags)

The Indian media doesn't care about reality, they want drama and sentimentalization.

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