India’s largest state, Rajasthan, has become the latest place to completely ban plastic bags.
The ban has been put in place due to “both the short-term and long-term environmental hazards” of plastic bags.
Some of the main reasons for the ban were that plastic bags blocking sewer lines, drainage systems and water distribution pipelines were increasing malaria and dengue fever in Rajasthan.
Additionally, partly as a result of plastic bags blocking drains in Mumbai in 2005, over 1000 people died in massive monsoon flooding there. The government would not like to see that happen again.
One more reason for the ban is that cows, which are sacred in India, often asphyxiate from trying to eat the bags.