The ban on plastic bags in Mumbai has on one hand the milk-packaging community crying hoarse as to how it would make milk dearer by 20 per cent, and on the other sees non-governmental organisations involved making and selling bio-degradable paper bags, eyeing the opportunity with tremendous potential waiting to be tapped.

The list of papermaking NGOs includes Society for Heal, Aid, Restore and Educate (Share), Helpage India, Federation for Welfare of Mentally Retarded (India), Raksha, the Delhi Cheshire Home and the Home for Mentally Handicapped.

Share and Helpage are actively considering the possibility of converting this opportunity into a big business venture, which could make the mentally challenged and senior citizens in earning their livelihood.

Helpage, and NGO for senior citizens, encouraged the initiatives of an old lady and helped her to set up a small business. She has tied up with two bakeries and supplys bags on a regular basis.

Share, the corporate social responsibility wing of United Television (UTV), supplies approximately 20,000 bags to all Fab India outlets in Mumbai on a monthly basis at a price of Rs 5 per bag. Envisaging huge demand for such bags in the event of the ban being implemented, the NGO is now in talks with other retail outlets like Foodland and Westside.

It is also exploring the option of teaching bags-making to people outside Mumbai, to meet the demand of of the Fab India outlets located outside Mumbai.

HSBC and Merrill Lynch are the business houses supplying the basic raw material to the NGO. The other paper donors include Rotary Clubs based in downtown and Sion and various housing societies located across Mumbai.