In a bid to protect the environment from plastic pollution that adversely affects humans, wildlife, and their habitat, the Ministry of Environment on Tuesday announced to ban single-use plastic from July 1. Single-use plastic is any plastic item that can be used only once before it is thrown away.
According to the notification issued by the Ministry of Environment, the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of single-use plastic, including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene commodities will be banned from July 1, 2022.
The Ministry notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021 to also prohibit other items including plastic sticks for balloons, earbuds with plastic sticks, ice-cream sticks, candy sticks, plastic cups, plastic glasses, plastic or PVC banners less than 100 microns, stirrers, plastic spoons, forks, knives, and straws.
“The littered and unmanaged plastic waste has resulted in the creation of massive plastic pollution at the global level. The adverse impacts of littered single-use plastic items plastic on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including in the marine environment are globally recognized. Therefore, addressing pollution due to single-use plastic items has become an important environmental challenge confronting all countries”, the statement added.
It is important to note that India at the 4th United Nations Environment Assembly held in 2019, had piloted a resolution on addressing single-use plastic products pollution. The country had called for immediate global attention to focus on this very issue. Also, in the recently concluded 5th session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022, India engaged constructively with all member states to develop a consensus on the resolution for driving global action on plastic pollution.
Reportedly, many countries including Canada and the Philippines have decided to ban single-use plastic from July 1, 2022. Countries like Kenya, Chile, Thailand, Rwanda, and the European Union have already implemented the ban on disposable plastic.
As per the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), plastic is harmful to the environment as it is non-biodegradable and takes years to disintegrate. But single-use plastics are worse as they never break down completely, they degrade and become microplastics and continue to pollute the environment.
The statement issued by the Ministry on June 28 also mentions that from July 1, national and state level control rooms will be set up and special enforcement teams will be formed for checking illegal manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of banned single use plastic items. The Centre has also asked the States and UTs to set up border check points to stop inter-state movement of any banned single use plastic items.
