From Friday, several common use-and-throw plastic products will cease to be in circulation with the government’s rules to prohibit their manufacture and use, issued in August last year, coming into effect. Plastic cutlery items, ice cream and balloon sticks, sweet boxes, invitation cards, cigarette packs, PVC banners measuring under 100 microns and earbuds are some of the items that will no longer be available. Given that the country generates more than 25,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day — more than 40 per cent of it stays uncollected, often choking sewage networks — the need for measures to restrict the use of this non-degradable synthetic material cannot be overstated. The government has also done the right thing in enforcing the ban in phases. The current strictures apply to relatively low utility items. The real challenge will come when the prohibition is extended to polythene bags under 120 microns in December.
In the past five years, more than 20 states have put in place some form of regulation on plastic use. But by all accounts, their implementation has been patchy at best. The poorly-staffed and feebly-empowered state pollution control boards or cash-strapped municipalities tasked with enforcing the bans have generally not been up to the task. Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav has said that his ministry will set up control rooms to monitor the ban. A better way would be to raise awareness amongst people and take all stakeholders into confidence — the success of Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh, to an extent, testifies to this.
