Despite being flooded with information from social media, it is difficult to imagine a day without a morning newspaper. Many even can’t go for a cup of tea without it. But by the day-end, the worth of those pages is reduced to scraps and collected by a scraps collector at month’s end. People often dump wastes in garbage bin wrapping newspapers. But has anyone thought of using the newspapers as a substitute to a plastic carry bag especially at a time when the government has already started implementing single-use plastics ban across the country. Orissa POST speaks to a few women who share their thoughts on old news paper reuse as an alternative to plastics carry bags.
Sthitapragyan Nanda, an HR professional from Puri batting for reuse of newspaper said, “Many people are not aware that brown paper bags are recycled from old newspapers but consume natural resources like water and electricity in the manufacturing process. On the contrary, the newspaper bags are resource intensive. Moreover, we can add more value to its life. Before it goes for recycling, it can live two lives – one as a newspaper and the other as a bag.”
Sasmita Routray of Cuttack said, “A restriction on single-use plastic carry bag will soon be in place and this is giving a lot of cause to worry to the customers. In shopping malls, the authorities offer paper carry bags but at a cost. To cut this extra cost, it is better to take your own carry bag. If it is a cotton bag, it is good. But you can also have your DIY bags using old newspapers.”
She didn’t forget to acknowledge the campaign launched by Dharitri and Orissa POST for recycling of the old newspapers.
“It is not just the current campaign, Orissa POST and Dharitri have been discouraging the use of plastic since last one year. The campaign on how we can use the old newspapers as carry bags is timely and has been received well. Many of us can learn carry-bag making from their social media sites ad and women can supplement their family earning by making paper bags,” she added.
Swapna Patra, a staffer of a premium hotel in Cuttack said, “Using paper bags is the only option to address plastic woes in the city. We offer dry foods to our customers in paper packs. We haven’t thought how to recycle the old newspaper to do that. But stuff like clothes and less-weighed material can be carried in paper carry bags. I have seen a couple of videos issued by Orissa POST on YouTube that shows how effectively we can use newspapers for the purpose. I didn’t know it was so easy to make a bag that can carry weight upto five kilograms without using any glue, tape or pin.”
Arundhati Rout, a home maker of Bhubaneswar said, “Paper bags lack the ease that plastic bags offer. But for a better tomorrow, we have to discard plastic which has posed a big threat to the environment. I remember, I used to bring dry items stuffed in ‘thunga’ (small paper carry bags) from the shops when I was a kid. But invention of plastic changed the face of packaging industry, albeit, at the cost of environment. Therefore, it is time to shun the single-use plastic and return to old days. With so many methods available on Internet to reuse old newspaper as bags, it will not be difficult to design our own bags. With this, we can save the cost of a bag at the malls. We must realise that the cost of a medium-size paper carry bag at these malls equals to a kilogram of old newspaper. At least 25 such bags can be made from one kg of old news paper with addition of raw material worth Rs 20. So, it’s make sense to make bags at home at leisure hours.”
SOYONG, OP