Ban on plastics

Sir, - People in various places are following with interest the Tamil Nadu Government's initiatives to address the growing garbage crisis in the State with serious limitations on the use of plastics. While it is not surprising that the plastics industry is resisting, we hope the Government will not be deflected from a sound approach, and set an example for the rest of the world. While plastics are useful and convenient in many ways, their high-volume use for one-time purposes such as packaging is unsustainable in terms of petroleum consumption and ultimate disposal. In the U.S., the plastics industry has sometimes been guilty of promoting incineration to prevent to recycling of plastic and protect sale of the virgin product.

As population increases, human activities are becoming disruptive to the natural resources on whichlife depends. We must respond by taking much more care to ensure that our activities are ``sustainable''. Decisions with large consequences cannot safely be made by particular industrial sectors concerned mostly with maximising their own profits. It usually makes best sense to attack problems as close as possible to the source, rather than create a problem and let others ``manage'' it.

Alan Muller,

Delaware, U.S.

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