Hello New Year, Goodbye Plastic

The New Year is here and so is the ban on single use plastic in the state of Chennai. Now the major questions that arise are, ‘Is the government ready to enforce the ban?’, ‘Is the public ready to shun the use of plastic?’, ‘Is the ban going to be manifested lawfully?’

The government on its part has formed special teams to implement the ban. However, the real success of the drive lies in the hands of public. If Monday collection drive of old plastic material is taken into consideration, the main thing that can be noticed is that the natives are not ready to totally let go off the banned items. Here is the list of the banned items:

• Plastic sheets/ film used for food wrapping
• Plastic sheets used as dining table covers
• Thermocol plates and cups
• Plastic coated paper cups and plates
• Plastic tea cups
• Plastic tumblers
• Water pouches/ packets
• Plastic straws
• Carry bags of all thickness
• Plastic coated carry bags
• Plastic flags
• Non woven polypropylene bags

Following alternatives can be used

• Plantain leaves, areca nut leaves
• Aluminium Foil
• Paper rolls
• Lotus Leaves
• Glass/ metal tumblers
• Bamboo, wooden products
• Paper Straw
• Cloth/ paper/ jute bags
• Ceramic ware
• Earthen cutlery
• Earthen pots

The authorities are planning to extend the ban beyond the fourteen restricted items. They want to cut down the usage of multilayer plastics like chocolate wrappers which are also recyclable. It is a very important decision because the single use plastics form just 47% of total plastic waste. The remaining 53% is multilayered plastic.