A WAKE UP CALL TO THE MEGA RETAILERS OF INDIA

Everyday millions of plastic bags are being dispensed at the cash counters of supermarkets, retail chain stores and mega stores across Indian cities and towns. This include the stores that we especially urbanites are familiar with and patronize like Reliance Fresh stores, Big Bazaars, More Stores, Foodworld supermarkets, Nilgiris supermarkets, Fresh @ Retail Stores (Heritage Group’s), Vishal Mega Marts, etc. to name a few.
Plastic bags are harmful to our environment as they are not bio-degradable in nature. So they cause soil pollution. Secondly they cause serious harm to animals and birds as these plastic bags get into their body while the birds feed on felt over food from the garbage dumps from our cities & towns. Many birds & animals even die because of such instances. These needs to be address immediately else the situation is only getting from bad to worse.
As citizens we need to adopt one simple practice, i.e., we need to CARRY OWN CLOTH BAGS whenever we go out for shopping. The MEGA RETAILERS ALSO NEED TO PLAY A CATALISING ROLE TO REVERSE THIS TREND. It is heartening to see one of the retail chains in Bangalore has done something commendable for this environmental cause.

The photos show the quiet campaign run by "Smart" chain of retail outlets in Bangalore. There is an urgent need for all the bigger retail chains also to display responsibility for the plastic bag menace they are indirectly responsible for spreading across the nation today. "Green-Step" is an organization in Bangalore which is working for this cause. Green – Step looks forward to hear from all the retail chains in India on this need for immediate action. The need of the hour is for us to run determined campaigns against plastic bags and support people in switching people to cloth bags. It might be in the form of charging people if they don’t bring their cloth bags, selling cloth bags on no-profit basis in all the retail stores, urging people to bring cloth bags from their homes. By educating and sensitize the masses on this subject and providing them a means to "Switch to Cloth Bags and avoiding plastic Shopping Bags" we can bring about this most needed change in the way the Indian Urbanite shops tomorrow. The question is which retail chain would take the lead and provide the kind of inspirational leadership that every other retail chain would like to follows suit? Are the Ambanis, the Birlas and the Biyanis are listening?

Green-Step, Pictures by C G Sriram +91 9740082847 – Bangalore.

Project as part of Landmark Education.