Govt to set up control rooms to enforce single-use plastic ban

Subject: Environment

Section: Pollution

With the ban on single-use plastic coming into force on July 1, the government will be setting up control rooms at national and state levels to ensure its effective enforcement.
The list of banned items include earbuds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polystyrene (thermocol) for decoration, plastic plates, cups, glasses, cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straw, trays, wrapping or packaging films around sweet boxes, invitation cards, cigarette packets, plastic or PVC banners less than 100 micron, stirrers.
These control rooms will be supervised by the Central Pollution Control Board.
States and Union Territories have been asked to set up border checkpoints to stop inter-state movement of any banned single-use plastic item.
The items have been chosen on the basis of three criteria – their low utility, high littering potential and availability of alternative materials.
The use of these items by consumers is also banned.

Statistics

According to the CPCB, plastic waste generation in 2020-21 was 41,26,997 tonnes, while per capita waste generation was 3 kg per annum.
There are 683 units manufacturing single-use plastic with a cumulative capacity of 2.44 lakh per annum.
The percentage of single-use plastic in total plastic waste is between 10% and 35 %.

Efforts taken to eradicate single-use plastics

The government has over the past year focused on encouraging industry and MSMEs to come up with alternatives to plastic, including biodegradable plastic and compostable plastic.
The government has awarded works to seven startups developing solutions, including biodegradable packaging material made from crop stubble waste among others.
The CPCB has already awarded certificates to 194 plants for production of compostable plastic with another 61 applications in process.
The certified plants have a capacity to produce 3 lakh tonnes of compostable plastic per annum.