NOIDA/ GHAZIABAD: Three days into the state government’s plastic ban ordinance and shopkeepers in Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad have started sourcing alternatives in the form of cloth bags , but they may have a huge gap to fill — given an estimated 2,000 grocers in these cities who would’ve to replace 10-15 tonnes of plastic bags daily.Though cloth bag makers and suppliers claim a 75% increase in demand over the past three days, the bags are being sourced from wholesale markets in Delhi due to their unavailability in Noida. However, the challenge is that while it’s easy to source light bags, there is still no alternative for carrying heavy weight above 10 kg. And the cost of cloth bags is now being transferred to the customer.“The small bags are okay for carrying goods up to 1kg, but we still do not have a viable solution for anything which weighs more. Customers are not in the habit of carrying their own bags to the grocers and we are looking for alternatives. Anyway, the customers are being charged Rs 3 per bag each time they buy them,” said Prafull Kumar of JK Stores, a grocery store in Sector 28.In Ghaziabad, too, grocers have stopped packaging goods in plastic bags for customers. The traders’ association, however, called on the authorities to make cloth bags available easily to people.

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