India bans single-use plastic from 1 July 2022
National and state-level control rooms to monitor illegal manufacturing, sale and use of single-use plastic items; app for users to notify
Pic - MDDTimes
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has said India will ban manufacturing, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of identified single-use plastic (SUP) items all across the country from 1 July 2022.
What will be banned?
Ear buds 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, and stirrers.
The Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, also prohibit manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of plastic carry bags having thickness less than 75 microns with effect from 30 September, 2021, and having thickness less than thickness of 120 microns with effect from 31 December 2022.
For effective enforcement of the ban, the government plans to establish national and state-level control rooms to monitor illegal manufacturing, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of banned single-use plastic items. “States and Union Territories have been asked to set up border check points to stop inter-state movement of any banned single use plastic items,” said the government.
A CPCB Grievance Redressal App has also been launched to help citizens notify the authorities.
The government said capacity-building workshops are being organized for MSME units to provide them technical assistance for manufacturing of alternatives with the involvement of CPCB/SPCBs/PCCs along with Ministry of Small Micro and Medium Enterprises and Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering (CIPET) and their state centres. “Provisions have also been made to support such enterprises in transitioning away from banned single use plastics,” it said.
In light of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aim to phase out single-use plastic items by 2022, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change first notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, on 12 August 2021.
In the 4th United Nations Environment Assembly held in 2019, India had piloted a resolution on addressing single-use plastic products pollution. The adoption of this resolution at UNEA 4 was a significant step. In the recently concluded 5th session of United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022, India engaged constructively with all member states to develop consensus on the resolution for driving global action on plastic pollution, said the Ministry in a government statement.
Single-use plastic have low utility and high littering potential, and the adverse impact of littered single-use plastic items on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including in marine environment are globally recognized, said the Ministry.
It had also notified the Guidelines on Extended Producers Responsibility on plastic packaging as Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2022 on 16 February 2022. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is responsibility of a producer for the environmentally sound management of the product until the end of its life. The Guidelines will provide framework to strengthen circular economy of plastic packaging waste, promote development of new alternatives to plastic packaging and provide next steps for moving towards sustainable plastic packaging by businesses.
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