Without questioning their sincerity, it has to be pointed out that it is one thing to declare that the carrybags' gauge will be increased to 25 microns from five to induce rag-pickers to collect them, and quite another to drive the message home to plastic processors countrywide. And this is where the crux lies.

Already, murmurs of protest are audible among processors throughout Gujarat, who apprehend expanding the gauge five times will wipe them out. If this mood gains strength, it may well trigger a confrontation between the big raw material manufacturers -- the IPCLs and the Reliances -- and the countless small processors.

Senior member of the Vadodara Plastic Manufacturers' Association Rajiv Aga, who attended the Ahmedabad seminar on plastics and environment, told Express Newsline that the step would bankrupt processors. ``Costs will go up and margins will be adversely affected'', he said, adding that plastic processors would meet shortly in Vadodara to take a decision on the gauge increase.

According to Aga, the solution to the plastic problem did not lie in changing the gauge. ``At present, the country generates 70,000 tonnes of plastic waste. A thicker gauge will increase that to 2.5 lakh tonnes'', he warned.

Expressing surprise that the move was being planned as an incentive for rag-pickers, Aga said, ``It is strange that an entire country depends so much on rag-pickers''.

With the processors already split on the issue, it remains to be seen how the gauge of plastic bags can be increased. Moreover, there is no government machinery to test the gauge of all the material produced by hundreds of processors. ``Who is going to check if the 500,000 to 800,000 bags made by an average processor has the right thickness?'' questioned a processor.

To Aga's contention -- a reiteration of the yesterday's seminar stand -- that bad waste management and littering were the roots of the problem, VMC's Additional City Engineer B S Trapasia said that this, too, was easier said than done.

Maintaining categorically that it was impossible to segregate plastic from other solid waste anywhere but at the source, Trapasia said, ``This is successful abroad because people themselves assort their garbage; at present garbage is used for land-filling, and plastic, too, goes into that.''

Arguing that it was the same story for municipal corporations throughout the country, Trapasia told Express Newsline that it was ``extremely difficult to prevent littering in a country with a large illiterate population''.

So, with gauge expansion likely to meet with resistance and waste management difficult, the only alternative left for the people is to kick plastic.