Shift to Recyclable Bags October 14, 2012: Kolkata The effects of plastic bags on the environment are really

quite devastating. While there are many objections to the banning of plastic bags based solely on their convenience, the damage solely to the environment needs to be controlled. There is no way to strictly limit the effects of plastic bags on the environment because there is no disposal method that will really help eliminate the problem. While reusing them is the first step, most people dont or can't, based on store hem , policies. They are not durable enough to stand up to numerous trips to the store so often the best that citizens can do is reuse them when following pooper scooper laws. The biggest problem with this is that once they have been soiled the end up in the trash, which then ends roblem they up in the landfill or burned. Either solution is very poor for the environment. Burning emits toxic gases that harm the atmosphere and increase the level of VOCs in the air while landfills in hold them indefinitely as part of the plastic waste problem throughout the globe. GBS Yi-Net has been campaigning against the use of plastic bags since 2011. The Yi-Net batch of Globsyn Net Business School, operating between 2011 and 2012, had Ban on Plastic Bags as its flagship Ban Bags project which was carried out in various malls across the city of Kolkata like Metropolis Mall, across Mani Square Mall and Forum Mall. The p project also won the award of the Best Net Activity at Best Activity the Fourth Meeting of the Yi Governing Council in March 2012. To carry forward the legacy, GBS legacy Yi-Net 2012-2013, undertook the project to campaign for the shifting towards recyclable bags. ertook On October 14, 2012 GBS Yi-Net carried out the Shift to Recyclable Bags project at Mani Net Square Mall from 11 am to 8 pm. The campaign was carried out by informing the visitors of the mall about how shifting to recyclable bags would hel protect the environment and bags made ng help ent from recycled-paper and jute were also sold to them. There was another dimension to the paper er campaign the bags sold by GBS Yi Yi-Net were sourced from two NGOs, Dakshin Prayash and Apne Aap, and the proceeds from the project, amounting to over Rs.18,000, were handed over , to them. The paper bags were made by the women of Dakshin Prayash and the block block-printing on the bags were done by the children who are part of the same NGO. The jute bags were made by the sex workers who take refuge wi Apne Aap NGO. The event started at 11 am with with . the members of GBS Yi-Net setting up a counter at the mall stocking nearly five hundred bags. Net mall, By the end of the day over four hundred bags were sold and the fifty-odd members of the net had impacted nearly four thousand people directly by talking to them, explaining their mission. pacted xplaining As October 14 was the last Sunday before the Dugra Puja, a major festival of the city, had set in, the mall saw an enormous number of foot falls and over ten thousand people were impacted indirectly through the placards, standees and presentations which were displayed near the counter. The event was graced by the august presence of Mr. Rabindra Tatia, Co raced Co-Chair, Yi Kolkata Chapter.