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Banning Single-Use Plastic Copy

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    Banning Single-Use Plastic Copy

    Recently, the Centre has defined a list of single-use plastic items that will be banned from 1st July 2022.Banning Single-Use Plastic

    As the name suggests, it refers to plastic items that are used once and discarded.

    The manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of notified single-use plastic, including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene, commodities shall be prohibited with effect from the 1st July, 2022.

    Why are Single-Use Plastics disastrous?

    • By 2050, it has been predicted that single-use plastic might contribute 5–10% of greenhouse gas emissions, depending on the production trajectory currently in place.
    • India ranks 94th out of the top 100 nations for producing the most single-use plastic garbage
    • India produces 4 kg of single-use plastic garbage per person yearly.
    • The decision to ban the initial batch of single-use plastic items was made due to their “difficulty of collection, and consequently recycling.”
    • These items are difficult to collect, especially since most are either small or discarded directly into the environment – like ice cream sticks.
    • Microplastics, which are particularly dangerous, are created when plastic is left in the environment for a very long time and does not decompose. These microplastics then find their way into our food supplies and eventually into our bodies.
    • The items chosen are of low value and of low turnover and are unlikely to have a big economic impact, which could be a contributing reason.

    How will the ban be enforced?

    • The ban will be monitored by the CPCB from the Centre, and by the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) that will report to the Centre regularly.
    • Directions have been issued at national, state and local levels — for example, to all petrochemical industries — to not supply raw materials to industries engaged in the banned items.
    • Those found violating the ban can be penalised under the Environment Protection Act 1986 – which allows for imprisonment up to 5 years, or a penalty up to Rs 1 lakh, or both.
    • Violators can also be asked to pay Environmental Damage Compensation by the SPCB.

    How do other nations handle single-use plastic?

    • In 2002, Bangladesh became the first nation to outlaw thin plastic bags. In July 2019, New Zealand became the most recent nation to outlaw plastic bags.
    • The Single-Use Plastics Directive entered into force in the European Union on July 2, 2021. (EU).
    • Single-use plastic plates, cutlery, straws, balloon sticks, and cotton buds cannot be sold in EU member states due to the directive’s ban on certain single-use plastics for which substitutes are available.

     

     

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