India’s Ban on Single-Use Plastic Comes into Effect From July 1st!
Are You the Consumer of Single Use Plastic? Be Careful Than! India’s Ban on Single-Use Plastic Comes into Effect! From Friday onward, certain items that contain single-use plastic will no longer be available. These include utensils including plates, cups, glasses, forks, spoons, knives, trays, and other objects. Earbuds, balloon sticks, cigarette packs, sweet boxes, candy and ice cream sticks, invitation cards, polystyrene used for decorations, and PVC banners smaller than 100 microns are other items that are prohibited.
The ban on single-use plastic will be done in a phased manner
Ban on single-use plastics came into effect early this Friday. The industrial associations encouraged the government to apply the prohibition gradually rather than all at once. Because even after the implementation of the rule the markets in India will continue to sell a variety of single-use plastic products as they are already in circulation. They include soft drinks and mineral water bottles that are all packaged with many layers. According to the definition India has chosen, these plastic objects are a perfect fit for single-use plastic.
Plastic, plastic and plastic; banned or not?
The word “ban” alone does not provide a clear picture because certain industries cannot just suddenly stop the usage of plastic meanwhile, the Indian Government has listed a few low-utility plastics with a high potential for littering from the list of single-use plastic products that are troublesome and has given ample duration to the other industries to phase them out.
But a lot of things are missing. For instance, plastic carry bags won’t be outlawed; they will still be accessible, but their thickness has been limited to greater than 75 microns up until December 31, 2022, and greater than 120 microns after that date.
Similarly, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) banners will not come under the banned category, but the government has stipulated that their thickness not be less than 100 microns.
The drought notification’s suggested phase-out time frame was January 1, 2022. The deadline was pushed out to July 1, 2022, in the final notification, which was published in August 2021 in response to a request from the plastics industry and AIPMA.
This indicates that the industry has already been given a six-month extension to make the switch away from the single-use plastic products that are supposed to be phased out.
Looking for Alternative solutions
A total ban on single-use plastic is a long-term plan for good but to work for that it should start from the basics. Markets on their hand need to come up with alternative packaging designs instead their plastic packaging and consumers on the other hand need to avoid the plastic carry bag and avoid littering the garbage dump with plastics. By doing this, it will be possible to reroute plastic garbage from landfills and into facilities for its treatment, where it can be recycled.
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