Ambala City In India Bans Single-Use Plastic And Polythene Bags
In the major development in India, taking precautionary action to protect the environment and pollution, the Ambala Municipal Corporation has decided to impose a complete ban on the use of single-use plastic and polythene bags in Ambala from November 1. Earlier in September this year, the district administration has asked hotels, restaurants, shopkeepers and vendors to give an undertaking that they will not use single-use plastic. In addition, those from whose premises or outside the banned product is recovered will also be taken to task.
Issuing a notification in this regard, Secretary of Municipal Corporation, Ambala City, said that awareness is being created among people and announcements are also being made. “Polythene and single-use plastic are lethal,” he said.
Earlier, the district administration had launched campaigns like rice-for-plastic and free distribution of cloth and jute bags, besides roping in college students to take forward the drive against single-use plastic in the district. Last year, DC Ashok Kumar Sharma had launched a drive to distribute 1-kg rice against 1-kg plastic waste. The drive evoked a good response from and over 20 tonnes of single-use plastic was collected before the lockdown. The plastic was used to produce electricity.
Around 43% of manufactured plastic in India is used for packaging purposes, and is mostly single-use plastic. Nevertheless, it is estimated that India generates 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste annually or about 946,000 truckloads at 10 tonnes a truck. Nearly 40% of this waste remains uncollected, as per the environment ministry. Most cities and towns are unable to efficiently implement plastic waste management rules. This waste piles up in landfills, chokes drains and rivers and flows into the sea where it is ingested by marine animals. It leaches into the soil and groundwater, contaminating the natural environment with poisonous dioxins.