Unlike vegetable and paper waste, plastic cannot be decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms. You could toss it into the Vishwamitri or bury it in the earth, but the bag you brought home vegetables in will not go away. Instead, like an debilitating disease, it'll gnaw away at your lifelines.

Not just by choking gutters and blocking off natural waterways into land, but also by literally asphyxiating whatever it surrounds. Remember that new shirt you brought home in the plastic bag that warned you not to line cribs or let children play with it? Plastic has the same suffocating effect on plant and marine life. And unlike your child, they won't even be able to complain.

Plastic is basically made up of polymer, to which is added colourants, plasticisers and reinforcements (which make it flexible) and stablisers (which make it durable). The plastic industry is screaming itself hoarse that the above combination doesn't necessarily make a toxic combination. True. The problem lies in its disposal.

But, even before that stage, plastic is endangering any foodstuff it happens to warp; the thinner the plastic, the more dangerous it is. Especially hazardous are the black bags used for meat and poultry. The longer it wraps the meat, the more the chances of the colours rubbing off to poison your dinner.

If it's only you plastic threatens at the dinner table, it's reach widens immeasurably once you've chucked it out. For then arises the problem of disposal. Burning, one of the most ignorant and popular -- methods, is dangerous if done under uncontrolled conditions. Agrees Vadodara Municipal Corporation's Additional City Engineer B S Trapasia, ``One shouldn't burn plastic because of the pollution factor, but our country is yet to find a viable way of disposing of it''.

So until one is found, ``Incineration is the only way of disposing of plastic. But our country probably doesn't have the expensive modern incinerators available abroad'', adds Trapasia.

And so, in the lanes and bylanes of Vadodara, rag-pickers and sweepers pile up garbage -- including the multi-coloured `disposable' plastic bags -- and strike a match. And in that one little act, the composition of the air we breathe changes.

As the little swirls of dank black smoke from burning plastic climb up into the air, it releases highly concentrated quantities of carbon mono-oxide (CO), a poisonous gas also found in automobile exhaust. According to Mayank Bhatt, president of the Vadodara unit of the Indian Medical Association, CO affects the haemoglobin, reducing its blood-carrying capacity. This leads to cardio-vascular and neurological problems and goes on to affect all the body tissues.

The additives release their own gases, powerful enough to trigger reproductive disorders, foetal damage, multiple cancers, hormonal disturbances and endocrinal damage. Besides, toxins released through the burning of plastic corrode the ozone layer.

And this is just the tip of the ice-berg. ``Research is on globally to delve deeper into the problems created by the incorrect disposal of plastic'', says Bittu Sahgal, editor of the Sanctuary magazine.

There's more: Some of the additives used to control the physical properties of plastic contribute to general pollution within the plastic industry through their residue.

That plastic -- especially the thin, fluttery, good-for-one-use variety -- is Evil Incarnate for humankind is now a given. But since they cannot be wished away with a magic wand, what are the options available? Bhatt suggests the use of plastic be banned altogether. ``We must go back to using paper and cloth bags. Cloth bags will be the best.''

Trapasia believes recycling is the only option, though he agrees not all plastic is recyclable.

There is another, and it's much more simple since the power to implement lies in our hands: Kick Plastic.