Ban plastics and ‘live happily thereafter’?

Kerala Government is enforcing the plastic ban from today. Will banning plastics be a happy ending story? Some questions!

How effective will be the ban?

What types of plastics are being banned? Will all the carry bags/ plastics above 30micron (or whatever) be reused to the maximum? By avoiding free shopping bags?

What are the alternatives for plastic carry bags, packing materials? Paper bags, cloth bags or bio-plastics? What is the environmental impact of paper bags (trees used for raw materials & energy used to produce / recycle them)?

How will we ensure that the remaining plastics are not mixed with other wastes and that they are recycled or utilised as fuel after extensive use? Separate waste handling for different types of wastes? What will be the penalties for disposing them irresponsibly? What will be the roles and responsibilities of plastics manufacturers?

What are impacts of plastic ban on the main users of plastics like bakers, restaurants, packers, etc? How the existing employees of plastic manufacturing industry will be affected? What are the solutions for them?

How do we handle or process other wastes - Municipal wastes, waste water? (ban water also?) Do we consider the wastes as utilisable resources? How extensively do we use covered or piped sewerages (instead of open mosquito ‘breeding centres’), separated from rain water drains, in cities and towns leading to waste processing facilities, centralised or decentralised? How effectively can the waste water be reused? How will we avoid seeping of untreated waste water from latrines/ septic tanks to the underground water table or water bodies like lakes and rivers? What is the significance of biogas plants here?