A tax of one rupee per unit, obligation for bottlers to ensure the collection of used and waste products? Whether it concerns bottles in polyethylene terephtalate (PET) or plastic shopping bags, the government regulation enacted 18 months ago has borne fruit: consumers have become regular users of reusable fabric or other jute shopping bags, the organized collection of empty plastic bottles has improved and has breathed a new life into recycling.

However, this measure is not unanimously supported. First, the producers of plastic bags, followed by those who deplore the lack of support from the authorities in refuse collection and the limited scope of environmental effects.

?Plastic is a promising sector?, comments Akil Ramjan, general manager of Polypet, in Solitude. His firm, which sub-contracts for the Bottlers? Association, reclaims between 25 and 27% of the local production that it exports in small pellets to its factories in Nigeria and South Africa to produce fibres that will manufacture a wide range of finished products, including T- shirts, jackets, pillows... ?For the moment, this is the only raw material that we produce but we are considering a whole production line in the future.?

Polypet and other firms, like Power Plastics, also in Solitude, operate the bottle collection through a network of collectors (800 for Polypet) and bins installed to that effect: those of the non governmental organisation Mission Verte in the north or those set up by the Roche-Bois Waste Disposal Scheme (RWDS).

The collectors sell their bottles by weight to cleaning firms. This activity has become a genuine means of subsistence for three women in the context of the RWDS. ?A collector can earn up to Rs 4000 a month?, states Akil Ramjan.

Louis Langlois, manager of Power Plastics, has also chosen to bet on the plastic carrier bags sector. ?After a careful sorting, we process these bags and we can either transform them into pellets for export or sell them to plastic bag manufacturers.? Power Plastics already manufactures a range of recycled objects that go from deck chairs to household electrical appliances. Seen from that point of view, plastic knows and unending rebirth and has a multiplier effect for investments.

But the plastic bag legislation has not made everybody happy. ?We had to conform to the exigency that our products be biodegradable, but excise duty has been a fatal blow for us?, declares Ashley Bissoondoyal, of Performance Plastics, a firm situated in Riche-Terre. Since the introduction of the tax, plastic bag sales have gone down by 80%. ?We have had to invest in other products.?

He also disputes the purely ecological gain of an alternative solution: ?The alternative of producing greaseproof paper bags would have done more harm to the environment and needed ten times more raw materials ? based on wood and thus meaning more trees destroyed ? than the plastic bag.?

But, beyond this argument, what is more obvious is the stroke of luck of hypermarkets in terms of economy of scale: ?Formerly, the plastic bags were in self-service and free and supermarkets bore the whole cost. Since the demand has lessened with the advent of paid plastic bags, hypermarkets that do not pay excise duty, have reduced their order for plastic bags?, asserts Ashley Bissoondoyal.

The bottlers could also fare better. Even if Claude Pougnet, president of the Bottlers? Association, is very pleased that the sector ?is among the rare ones that ensure an efficient waste processing and recycling ? 30% of the total volume ? when the authorities will service only 15%?, he deplores that, for the past 18 months, no incentive measures have followed.

Louis Langlois, of Power Plastics, underlines for his part the high cost of a rubbish bin, ?between Rs 20,000 et Rs 25,000. We would be even more motivated if our partner Mission Verte could find a leasing for the manufacture of other bins that we would refund afterwards.?

And the last, but not least, incongruity of this legislation is the fact that small plastic bags that do not fit in the category of carry bags and are frequently used on the streets by hawkers, are exempt from tax and are still used without due care and attention.