The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said on Saturday that the Central Pollution Control Board is ready to take measures to reduce the supply of raw materials to ban single-use plastic items by June 30, 2022.
This comes despite MSMEs seeking to delay the ban on single-use plastics by a year, as they say they need more time to switch to alternatives like biodegradable paper.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said, “As part of the Comprehensive Action Plan of the CPCB, the multi-pronged approach includes measures to reduce the supply of raw materials, demand-side measures to reduce the demand for plastics, Enabling measures to promote alternatives to SUPs.” ,
Plastic items that will be banned starting July 2022 include plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice cream sticks, and polystyrene (thermocol) for decoration, plates, cups, Glass etc.
As per the Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rules, 2016, there is a complete ban on pouches using plastic material used for storage, packing or sale of gutka, tobacco and pan masala.
As per the Revised Rules, 2021, the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of carry bags made of virgin or recycled plastic less than seventy five microns have been banned with effect from September 30, 2021, as opposed to fifty microns. Recommended earlier under PWM Rules, 2016.
MSMEs had warned that the ban could lead to a halt in swab manufacturing in India, threatening around 3,000 MSMEs and 15,000 jobs. The forum said that the ban would force MSMEs to import rolled paper sticks at a higher cost, threatening the MSMEs in the health sector.
“The paper required for the manufacture of rolled paper sticks is not available in India and has to be imported from Germany and other developed countries as no paper making company from India is equipped or capable of producing the required paper quality for making rolled paper sticks. . sticks for swabs,” the MSME said in a letter to the Ministry of MSME, Commerce and Environment.
However, the government said that in order to support MSMEs, CPCB in association with Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering and Technology (CIPET) is organizing workshops for MSMEs across the country on alternatives to single use plastics.
“Three such workshops have been organized in Ranchi, Guwahati and Madurai. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said, development of alternatives to petro-based plastics is also being done in collaboration with premier technical institutes like IISc and CIPET.