India to ban single-use plastic items from July 1

Agencies | New Delhi                     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

India's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on Tuesday, June 28, announced the ban identified single-use plastic items across the country from July 1.

India will ban the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of identified single-use plastic items, which have low utility and high littering potential, all across the country, it said in a statement.

For effective enforcement of the ban, national and state-level control rooms will be set up, and special enforcement teams will be formed to check the illegal manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of banned single-use plastic items.

States and Union Territories have also been asked to set up border checkpoints to stop the interstate movement of any banned single-use plastic items.

The list of banned items includes earbuds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polystyrene (thermocol) for decoration, plastic plates, cups, glasses, cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straw, trays, wrapping or packing films around sweet boxes, invitation cards, cigarette packets, plastic or PVC banners less than 100 micron, stirrers.

The adverse impacts of littered single-use plastic items on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including in the marine environment, are globally recognised. Addressing pollution due to single-use plastic items has become an important environmental challenge confronting all countries, said the statement.

The Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, has already prohibited manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of plastic carry bags with thickness less than seventy five microns. It also provides for ban on plastic carry bags having thickness less than thickness of one hundred and twenty microns with effect from the December 31, 2022.