Paper cups have been replaced with glass cups, or kulhads, at tea stalls since the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation decided to outlaw them beginning on Friday. After it was discovered that paper cups clogged the drains, the AMC made its decision.
The director of the AMC’s solid waste management division, Harshad Solanki, estimates that Ahmedabad discards about 25 lakh paper cups daily. They clog the pipes. These cups aren’t quite paper cups because they have a thin plastic coating that prevents them from being torn. They produce a lot of litter and are difficult to dispose of.
On January 15, the ban was made known. The deadline for the tea vendors and other shop owners to switch to alternative cups like steel, glass, ceramic, or terracotta (kulhad) till January 20. “We will begin sealing the stores and stalls that will be selling these cups after January 20. No penalty was levied. Additionally, these cups are expensive for these vendors as well, Solanki said.
He continued by saying that over the previous two months, more of these cups had been disposed of and that vendors’ shops had been sealed if they were discovered to be using them. The department has been promoting alternatives for the past 15 days while discouraging the use of paper cups with vendors. The civic organisation claims to have gotten a favourable response.
Nepal Singh, who owns a tea shop on Nyay Marg in the Bodakdev area, claimed that many of these sellers lacked access to water to frequently wash alternative cups. Additionally, given the hygiene issue, customers also have problems using the glass cups. After the Covid-19 pandemic, this has grown to be a significant issue, the 35-year-old said.
According to the size of the cups, Singh used to purchase between 400 and 500 paper cups every day for a price ranging from 20 to 50 paise per piece. “First, for the benefit of the customers, we might have to purchase kulhads, and given the cost of that purchase, we will have to raise the price of tea. Second, the price of glass cups will rise once the ban is fully implemented, Singh continued.
Depending on their sizes, a glass cup costs around Rs 10, while a small terracotta cup, known as “kulhad”, retails around Rs 5.
However, many tea shops, like those lining the SG Highway near the Karnavati Club, applaud the AMC’s choice. “We no longer have to spend money on disposable paper cups thanks to the ban. The glass cups cost Rs 4 each, so buying them only once helps to reduce litter. However, since kulhads are disposable and cost about Rs 3 each, we do not intend to keep them. “My clients are completely okay with it,” says tea shop owner Dinesh Desai. After the ban, he claims he still keeps about 30 glass cups in his shop and washes them in two water buckets that are kept nearby.
Most of these tea sellers got to know about the ban through newspapers or by word of mouth. The coffee and tea chains in the city are also implementing the bans.
The paper cups disposed of till date are being dumped at the Pirana landfill site. The civic body is on its plan to destroy the waste in a waste-to-energy plant, generating green energy.