Plastic out, cloth in at BMC markets
After banning plastic bags thinner than 50 microns and making municipal markets plastic-free, the BMC has now started a drive to induce the use of cloth bags. By tying up with an initiative called Mumbai Bags, the BMC aims to sell cloth bags at all municipal markets at a cost of Rs 2 per bag. At a function on Saturday to launch Mumbai Bags, additional municipal commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar said it was important to make cloth bags available so that citizens can avoid plastic. “The idea is to sell the bags at strategic locations such as our 103 civic-owned markets. Since the price of Rs 2 is affordable we hope more and more citizens will come forward to buy them,” said Mhaiskar. To make the project commercially viable, the civic body will allow corporate bodies to place advertisements on the cloth bags. Citizens’ corporator from Juhu Adolf D’souza, who is behind the concept, said ad space on the bags would attract companies. “This is one of the reasons why we will be able to provide these bags at such a reasonable cost,” said D’Souza.