Ahead of the Independence Day, the Centre had urged all citizens not to use national flags made of plastic and asked the states and the union territories to ensure strict compliance of the flag code.
In an advisory, the Home Ministry said it has been brought to its notice that during important events, the national flag made of plastic is used in place of paper flags.
Since plastic flags are not biodegradable like paper flags, they do not get decomposed for a long time and ensuring appropriate disposal of the national flag made of plastic commensurate with the dignity of the flag, is a practical problem, the advisory said.
However, experts point out that even paper flags are not the solution. They said, instead of paper, the public should be encouraged to use flags made of recycled materials.
Approximately, 93% of paper comes from chopping down trees and an average of 5 litres of water is required to produce one piece of A4 paper. This plays a huge role in leading to deforestation and water crisis/toxicity.
Paper is viewed very discreetly about its environmental impact. The universally negative sentiment against plastic has led us to believe that paper is eco-friendly. While the paper is biodegradable and recyclable, it requires far more energy to manufacture and transport than plastic.
Paper also has very limited re-use potential and produces methane if dumped in the landfill.
“Not everything that’s ‘recyclable’ actually gets recycled. The journey of recycling starts with consumers responsibly segregating and disposing of various materials like paper, wood, plastic, metals, debris, glass and inert materials. The next step is to have an effective collection & waste management system in place to send it to the recycling and composting, biogas units.
Reference- TOI, Reuters