Today consumers pay a lot for attractive packaging but this is non eco-friendly. Packaging account for 5 to 45% of consumer spending. For most of these products; recycled paper is a feasible option. The Government should take a policy decision on the materials which can be used by the packaging industry; Subsequently there should be a ban on manufacture of disallowed plastics-there is no use putting a ban on their sale and use, without a ban on their production in the first place.

Carry bags are the small, thin, coloured plastic bags available at vegetable, fruit, meat, sweet and medical shops. 58% of these last only from the shop to the home. They have zero reusability. Every recycling reduces their strength further so that these bags tear easily. Most of these plastics find their way into and block open drains and sewers, adding to the proliferation of mosquitoes, flies and bacteria. Since they have little recycling value and are very light, ragpickers tend to ignore them. As a result, cows and other animals that feed on garbage dumps often choke to death when they swallow plastic bags while plastic bags, when disposed in the sea and on beaches are fatal to marine life. The indiscriminate use of plastic has damaged the ecology of Himalayas. Even the route to Mt. Everest is now degraded.

• The domestic demand of plastic is expected to cross and million tones by 2001 – 2002. Confirming as a material of choice in numerous applications due to depletion of already scare natural resources.

• The government of Himachal Pradesh was one of the earliest to introduce legislation prohibiting the throwing or disposing of plastic articles in public places.

• The union ministry of environment and forests has recently notified the "Recycled Plastic manufacture and usage rules, 1999". These rules require that carry bags or containers used for purposes of storing shall be made of virgin plastic and be in natural shade or white.

• Recycling of plastics shall also be undertaken strictly in accordance with specifications prescribed by the Bureau of Indian standards and shall carry a mark that the product is manufactured out of recycled plastic.

• All vendors are prohibited to use carry bags or containers made out of recycled plastic for storing, carrying, dispensing or packaging of food style.

• In July 2001, a committee was constituted under the chairmanship of Mr. Justice Ranganath Mishra, former Chief Justice of India, to examine among others "various environmental issues relating to discriminate littering of plastic wastes with particular reference to disposal".