Kerala High Court pours cold water on Green Protocol initiative

Thiruvananthapuram: No local body in the state will be able to implement the Green Protocol fully, as the Kerala High Court has stayed the ban imposed by various local government institutions on the use of disposable paper cups. Thiruvananthapuram Corporation happens to be one of the local bodies which had banned the use of all disposable cups. “Now the government will not be able to strictly enforce the paper cup ban anywhere. The waste menace will only get worse,” says Manoj C N, founder, Pelican Foundation, a waste management service provider.

The Green Protocol was fairly successfully implemented during events like Attukal Pongala, in which steel tumblers and plates were used to replace disposable items.  Strict enforcement of the ban would have reduced the availability of cups, and helped people shift to better options, but there were other strategies to make this shift possible, says Haritha Keralam Mission Vice-chairperson T N Seema.

“Within Thiruvananthapuram Corporation premises, Indian Coffee House has decided to avoid disposables. In Perinthalmanna municipality, Kudumbashree women have started a successful enterprise – rental of steel cups and plates. They give 1500-2000 plates to auditoriums willing to follow the Green Protocol, and bring them  back to their unit for washing. In this case, awareness rather than strict enforcement worked,” she says.

The petitioners – 11 of them including Sandeep Philip, Secretary of Vanchiyoor-based Kerala Paper Cup Manufacturers’ Association – had contended that paper cups, unlike plastic cups, are biodegradable. That itself is a questionable claim, according to environmentalists. Shibu K N, a solid waste management expert, says, “Paper cups have a plastic lining, because of which it is not easy to turn those into compost.

The plastic content helps the manufacturers reduce manual labour, as the cup’s bottom can be fixed to the top by heating and crimping the edges. They can use machines for this. In the case of pure paper cups which were available years ago, they would have to employ someone to stick the bottom to the top.” The ban had adversely affected the sales of paper cups in various local bodies, especially Thiurvananthapuram, according to manufacturers.