The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), a government body under the Ministry of Environment, has issued a notice to ban single-use plastics from 1st July 2022. The manufacturing, importation, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of certain single-use plastic (SUP) items will be outlawed from July 1, 2022, according to the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021.
The Centre also came out with the list of items that will be banned which includes plastic bags, takeaway food containers, disposable cutlery, straws and stirrers, processed food packets and wrappers, cotton bud sticks etc. As per the notification of the Central government, “The manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of single-use plastic, including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene commodities will be banned effectively from July 1, 2022. Other prohibited items include plastic sticks, plastic cups, plastic glasses, plastic or PVC banners less than 100 microns, stirrers, plastic spoons, forks, knives and straws.”
The Central Pollution Control Board has also issued notices to producers, stockists and e-commerce sites so that these items are no longer used or sold. Additionally, no plastic carry bags less than 120 micron thick can be used from December 31, 2022.
If there is no improvement in consumption patterns and waste management practices, it is estimated that there will be around 12 million tonnes of plastic litter in landfills and in the environment by 2050. Single-use plastic contaminates soil and water, chokes waterways and worsen natural disasters. Plastics block sewage systems and provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and release toxic chemicals and emissions when burned.
While the issue of menace of plastic pollution is not something new, a topic of interest among environmentally conscious individuals and groups for decades now, government participation gained significance only in the last decade. In 2018, Indian prime minister pledged to phase out all single use plastics by 2022.
In 2019, government of Nagaland banned all single use plastic items across the state. It was a rather largely futile exercise because the ban did not achieve its intended goal. The COVID-19 pandemic can be made the scapegoat here. However, with the central government pushing forward the ban despite some appeals from various corporate houses, the state government will be required to act again. In fact, the government of Nagaland has already notified the ban, again, on April 24, 2022.
The government is ready to address the menace of plastic pollution, but the outcome of the ban largely depends on the consumers, the people. Unless there is willingness on the part of the people to adopt some lifestyle changes, the ban would prove to be futile again.
Success of the ban would also depend on how the local bodies implement the rules. In Mokokchung, supposedly the ‘cleanest town’ in Nagaland, there is no news yet from the authorities on the latest ban. There seems to be no interest and it is very likely that the ban will be implemented simply because the government said so.
There seems to be a lack of commitment and purpose as far as the issue at hand is concerned.