Manjappai not popular yet, vendors reluctant to let go of plastic bags: Study

CHENNAI: Despite the State’s effort to promote the use of cloth bags under the Meendum Manjappai initiative to eliminate the usage of single-use plastic bags, a study by Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG) has found that 56 per cent of vendors fear that consumers would stop purchasing from them if they refuse to provide plastic bags.

The study titled ‘Evaluating the Efficacy of the Meendum Manjappai Campaign’ reveals that only 7 per cent of vendors in Perambalur district are aware of the initiative. The study surveyed vendors of different types of markets in Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruchy, Madurai, Theni, Perambalur, Nagapattinam and Kanyakumari districts.

Of the 809 vendors surveyed, 98 per cent are aware that plastics are hazardous to the environment and human health. However, only 73 per cent of the respondents knew that microplastics are present in terrestrial, aquatic animals, birds and humans. A whopping 75 per cent of the respondents believe that the ubiquity and the consequent inevitability of plastics is the number one contributor to plastic pollution.

“Another concerning observation was that 56% of the respondents were not aware of the existence of the kiosks/ vending machines for manjappai. Furthermore, out of those who were aware of the manjappai kiosks (44%), 57% of respondents answered they have not seen the kiosks anywhere and 6% answered that they might have seen one, but were unsure of where it was,” the study pointed out.

The study also found that 79 per cent of respondents knew of the Meendum Manjappai campaign. District-wise analysis shows that over 90 per cent of vendors in Madurai, Nagapattinam, Kanyakumari, Theni and Coimbatore were aware of the campaign. Only around 79 per cent of vendors in Tiruchy and 74 per cent in Chennai were aware of the campaign. Further, only 15 of 102 vendors surveyed in Perambalur were aware of the ban on plastics.

“Perambalur showed worrying results with only 7% of the vendors aware of the campaign. On analysis of this data based on the type of shops, we found that 90% of the permanent shop vendors, 61% of street vendors and 52% of temporary shop vendors were aware of the campaign,” the study explained.

While releasing the report during the inauguration of ‘Climate Action Month’ organized by CAG on Thursday, P Senthil Kumar, Secretary of Environment, Climate Change and Forests department, acknowledged that some districts have reached good awareness about the campaign, and some districts have lower awareness. “The department will be reaching out to all the shopkeepers and the public to create awareness,” he said.