I just love Goa

For its beaches and heavenly holiday ambience of course, but also for its community activism. See the story below about the kids protesting against plastic last month. Scroll below or click on http://www.badlani.com/blog/comments.php?id=107_0_1_0_C I’m back in Ahmedabad after holidaying there with my family (that’s them in the photo) and just a month later I’m gratified to read that the Mormugao Municipal Council has banned plastic bags from its city. They’ve requested other panchayats (village councils) in the district also to follow suit and already the Chicalim village panchayat has today banned plastic carry-bags from its jurisdiction thus becoming the first panchayat in the state to do so. This positions Goan administrations even at the village level as being way more aware and progressive than the city governments of so many larger Indian cities. Really something for Goans to be proud of.

Just plain common sense

Plastic bags cause harm to the environment. Governments have to spend lots of money containing this harm. Who should pay for this? The community as a whole? Definitely not, says Bruno Oberle, head of Switzerland’s Federal Environment Office, “Polluters must pay; they cannot be allowed to off load the costs on to others. Otherwise you get a distortion of prices, and of the rules governing a market economy. Correctives must therefore be introduced”. This was published at www.swissinfo.org in an article called Being Green is Good for Business Ireland had the right idea. They introduced a tax on plastic bags and consumption feel 90% in just one year. Just plain common sense. You do wrong, you’re made to pay, you quickly correct your behaviour.

Goans against plastic bags and litter

Goa is a wonderful place. Apart from the fantastic ambience and all the wonderful beaches and the delectable food you get there, Goa leads the way in community activism. I was there last month enjoying a holiday with my family and one day as we drove along one of the smaller back roads we saw this long procession of kids yelling their heads off as with the kind of enthusiasm only kids can muster up. Couldn’t understand a word of what they said, but when I saw the placard they were carrying I was thrilled. It said Anti Plastic Campaign! We all got off, applauded them and congratulated their teachers for helping organize this. My daughter Kaajal whipped out her camera and started shooting. The kids were thrilled to be noticed and photographed and I was so happy we took that route on that day. I went (the fat guy on the left is me) and made them hold the placard up straight so we could get the name of their school right. Its called the Shri Dayanand Arya High School and its in a village called Neura. I’d never heard of this village but I’m immensely impressed by what they’re doing there. Look at the enthusiasm on their faces and look at their perspective. So many supposedly educated and aware people don’t realize what harm burning plastics does, but the kids and teachers in this little village do! What made it even more wonderful was the immediacy of their appeal. They weren’t campaigning against a general cause. No. They were talking about saving their Motherland. They didn’t treat this as some far-off problem to be discussed in a dilettante manner. They saw plastic bags for what they are. A clear and present danger that affects us all and affects us today! These kids were marching to the seat of the government, many miles away, to make our politicians aware that the issue was real to them. Our politicians and governments by and large take no notice of people’s problems but Goan governments (whatever party is in power) appear to be a little better than the rest. Goa is doing what it can. People who go there and wonder how the beaches are so clean often neglect to notice and thank the people who do it. Goan beaches are being kept clean by this wonderful team of ladies who police the beaches and pick up all the litter there. I saw how people behaved. The Westerners were by and large respectful of the need to keep the place clean. East Europeans were a little less so. Sadly, the Indian tourists were the least concerned. Tragic. Reusable bags are attractive and affordable ( see http://www.badlani.com/bags ) and I’m sure Goa and its aware citizens will welcome the concept. Out of respect for what the locals are already doing, one day soon I’m going to go to Goa and push the concept of reusable bags there. Of course, most people in my office suspect I’m actually planning to goof off and go holiday there.

Times of India Chandigarh carries a story about us

The Times of India's Chandigarh edition recently carried a story about our efforts to reduce plastic bag usage. Unfortunately they focused a little more on me and how I created the Flying Machine brand of jeans than they did on our present activities, but what the hell - it's nice to be noticed.

They’re involved in an effort to reduce plastic bag usage in Chandigarh and they contacted me in that context. We discussed some strategies and I hope to offer them some tangible solutions very soon and will do a story on what we’re going to try. Keep your eyes on this place.

Good for you Thames 21

I just read about a wonderful group called Thames21 that is calling for volunteers to join them in a foreshore litter blitz on Saturday, February 4. This patch of the Thames, called the Greenwich Bend, has a particular problem with a build of plastic bags, which pose a real threat to wildlife. Although the river is today one of the cleanest city rivers in Europe, at least 1,000 tonnes of rubbish is removed from the tidal Thames every year, and we are warning that much more litter is washed out to sea with devastating effects on marine life. Sea turtles are regularly killed by swallowing plastic bags which they mistake for jellyfish.

Plastic bags a real scourge. Reusable bags are the only answer. Fabric reusable bags are elegant, attractive and very economical. See some at http://www.badlani.com/bags

Taxation works.

Ireland, 2006. Here’s what the plastic bag tax has resulted in: 2002: €7.2m 2003: €12.75m 2004: €13.5m 2005: €14m + That much more money is available to be spent on improving Ireland’s environment and plastic bag usage is down by more than 90%. Is the government of India listening? This is the solution. Bans on bags less than so many microns don’t work. Just look around the streets. If plastic bags are banned where is all that daily junk coming from? Tax plastic bags. All plastic bags. Encourage people to switch to reusable fabric bags instead.

You use, you throw. Then?

Ever wondered what happens to that free plastic bag after you throw it away? If you live in a rich economy, it gets buried into landfill. It takes serious resources to collect them, palette them, transport them and bury them into a landfill. You think the bags are free but your tax dollars are spent to do all these elaborate things. Then, your landfill has to be “managed”. This illustration from LJWorld.com shows how:

It may all look very pretty, like a lady with cosmetics on her face can, but underneath all this that land is dead. The surface will grow a façade to please you but it’s just that, a façade. Switch to reusable bags instead. That buck or two you spend on buying a cloth bag is less than what this charade costs, because it is repeated every day.

We just love FedEx...

As I look back at the success we’ve enjoyed in the couple of years since we started this company it strikes me that we must acknowledge the role that FedEx has played in helping us get there. FedEx is a great company. Their attitude is that once they’ve taken on a task, they are completely responsible to complete it. There is no other courier company that comes close to this attitude. I remember a time when a British customer’s shipment was held up at US customs in Anchorage because they didn’t have a US tax ID number (they were attending a convention in Orlando and should have been issued a temporary number by the convention organizers). Though it wasn’t any mistake on their part, the folks at FedEx here in Ahmedabad (Gaurav Sheth and Vipul Shukla), and in Mumbai (Caroline Pinto) stayed up all night helping me find a solution. As a company we’ve learnt to admire FedEx’s commitment and we’ve made up our minds that in our work we will attempt to match the kind of commitment, customer service and responsibility they demonstrate. We've used them for thousands of international express shipments and they've never let us down. Thank you FedEx for being such a great organization, for facilitating our business and being such great logistics partners, and for setting such a fine example for us.

Have a wonderful 2006! A how-to...

To all the folks who read my weblog: Have a wonderful 2006! Maybe this little statistic will help make it more productive for you. The Australian Promotional Products Association put out these numbers. 71% of business travelers surveyed at an international airport recently reported having received a promotional product in the last 12 months. Moreover, 33.7% of this group had the item on their person. Isn’t that something? It gets better. 76.1% of the respondents could recall the advertisers name on the product they have received in the last 12 months. In comparison, 80% of participants answered yes to reading a newspaper or magazine in the last week but only 53.5% of them could recall the name of a single advertiser. Sure looks like promo products give you far better recall than mass media does, doesn’t it? As for promo products being carried on their person, I know that the products we make and sell get carried around all the time. See our line of bags at http://www.badlani.com/bags So, have a great year ahead! I hope our repertoire of products can contribute to making that happen for you.