India Apparently Doesn't Have Littering Laws 

A province in India is banning plastic bags:

The western Indian state of Maharashtra on Friday said it is banning most plastic bags, blaming them for choking drains and causing floods a month ago that left more than 1,000 people dead, most in Bombay.

Businesses caught using them would be fined 5,000 rupees ($114), while individuals would have to pay 1,000 rupees.

"Gutters choked with plastic bags caused the flooding which led to enormous losses for the state," the chief minister said in a statement. "The media and environmental and citizens' groups demanded that plastic bags be banned, so we are banning them."

Sounds like the problem isn't plastic bags, but rather that people seem to feel free to throw them wherever they damn well please. Maybe stricter enforcement of littering laws is the solution. Once again, government thinks it's smarter to get ride of a thing, instead of looking at behavior. Next on the docket is a proposal to ban pens because graffiti on bathroom walls is too much of a problem.