``We remove ten truckloads of plastic waste every day from Dadar beach,'' says G (north) ward officer Madhav Weling. ``We could have utilised those trucks to clear city garbage instead.''

Low tides leave behind an ugly swathe of plastic, some two kilometres long, four metres wide and nearly a foot thick. The story is repeated on the Juhu and Versova beaches.

``Earlier, plastic bags were washed ashore only during monsoons, but now it's happening round the year,'' says George Gopali, a private contractor who has been cleaning Juhu beach for six years. Every day, Gopali's men recover two tractor-loads of nearly a tonne of plastic bags mixed with sand.Clearing the beach of plastic bags is no easy task, as beachcomber Haridas Thakur explains onShivaji Park beach. ``The bags are filled with wet sand and have to be thoroughly washed before being sold,'' he says, as he washes them in a puddle and stuffs them into a sack.

Business has been brisk ever since the plastic carry bag became a permanent fixture among shops and vendors nearly five years ago. A scrap trader at Shuklaji Street pays Thakur three rupees for a kilo of bags. He earns over a 100 rupees a day. But not all residents are as happy as the beachcombers. ``We can't jog on the beach as it's littered with plastic,'' fumes Jay Kowli, who stays a stone's throw away from the beach. Exactly a month ago, Dadar residents got Environment Minister Chandrakant Khaire to view for himself the mayhem caused by plastic on the beach.

The two-kilometre-long Dadar beach's problems stem from the plastic carry bags dumped into Mahim creek, which float out into the sea. Strong sea currents, especially in the monsoon, continuously whip these bags ashore.

``The sea has a tendency never to accept flotsam, itjust pushes them back,'' says M R Shah, chief engineer of BMC's solid waste management department, who strongly feels the plastic bag should be banned.

``People seem to think if they throw their garbage in plastic bags in the sea, it will solve their problems. But they don't seem to realise it comes back at them,'' says Usha Kiran, chairperson of Save Versova Beach Association. The beach is witness to stray dogs and cats scavenging for food in the bags scattered on the sands.

Senior BMC officials feel the only solution to clean beaches is to find sponsors who will undertake maintenance of Mumbai's beaches. ``There's not much the BMC can do about the beaches, as they are under the jurisdiction of the collector,'' says additional municipal commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad. Target the government

I think you should get after the government, instead of having a campaign to ask people to stop using plastic bags. What is the use of telling people? If there are bags, people will use them. Are you givingthem an alternative, equally cheap and viable? It is the government's job to clean up the city -- they can be the only ones to come down on plastic manufacturers. People, I think, are quite helpless. This is like telling people to quit smoking. As long as there are cigarettes, people will smoke. If there are no cigarettes, what will they do? As long as there is manufacture, there will be consumption, because there is revenue. Why should people stop manufacture if it gives them money? The bottomline is, the government should be targetted.