A cup of tea

You see these plastic cups all over India--more often than not on the ground. I am told that India had a long history of street vendors serving tea in little clay cups. When people finished their tea they would simply throw the cups on the street. The cups would soon be dissolved by the rain. For some reason--I'm sure they have some logical explanation for it--the World Trade Organization dictated that India should use plastic cup instead of the traditional disposable cups they had used. The plastic cups don't dissolve as well as the ceramic cups.