GUWAHATI, Sept 27 - Use of single-use plastic (SUP) will become unlawful from October 2 in the entire country. Single-use plastic refers to the entire class of plastic items that are used once and then disposed of. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced India�s pledge to phase out all single-use plastic by 2022.
The Government of India (GoI) has asked the States to ban use of the SUP with effect from October 2, 2019, which coincides with the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.
The GoI guidelines (DO No-17-2/2001-HSMD, Dated January 21, 2019) in this respect was issued in view of the global concern expressed over plastic pollution, particularly due to the SUP. The guidelines asked the States and Union Territory authorities to come up with innovative ideas to minimise SUP and improve upon these guidelines in their respective States and Union Territories.
This was followed by Prime Minister Modi�s speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day this year. Prime Minister Modi in his Independence Day speech urged the people of the country to eliminate the use of plastic bags completely. In his address, he said single-use plastic poses a grave threat to the environment. �Can we free India from single-use plastic? The time for implementing such an idea has come. Teams must be mobilised to work in this direction. A single step must come out by October 2,� he had said.
Prior to this, the Urban Development Department of the State government through a notification {Number-- UDD (M)/98/2013/Pt/252} on April 29, 2019, prohibited with effect from April 26, 2019, the use of 12 SUP items, including plastic film used for wrapping food, thermocol plates, plastic-coated paper plates, plastic-coated paper cups, plastic tea cups, plastic tumblers, water pouch packets, PET plastic water bottles, plastic straws, plastic carrybags of every thickness, plastic-coated carrybags and plastic flags in the urban local bodies of the State under sections 3,6 and 25 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and under Sub-section (e), (zf) of Rule 15 of Solid Waste Management Rule, 2016.
The Assam Science Society on September 6 this year reminded the State government and the urban local-self authorities of the above notification and called for initiation of necessary steps to completely ban SUP by October 2, 2019 positively.
The Science Society is relentlessly insisting on banning SUP since October 5, 2018. It also submitted a memorandum to the State government calling for necessary steps to ban SUP that day.
