New Delhi: The Centre has notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, which prohibit manufacturing, importing, stocking, distributing, selling, and using single-use plastic (SUP) items, including candy sticks, plates, cups and cutlery, from July 1, 2022.
A notification dated August 12 states that the thickness of plastic carry bags will increase from 50 microns to 75 microns from September 30, 2021, and to 120 microns from December 31, 2022. Furthermore, the plastic carry bags will be reusable, it stated.
Non-woven plastic carry bags should not be less than 60 grams per square metre (GSM) with effect from September 30, 2021, the notification said.
‘The manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of following single-use plastic, including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene, commodities shall be prohibited with effect from July 1, 2022: earbuds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polystyrene (thermocol) for decoration; plates, cups, glasses, cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straw, trays; wrapping or packing films around sweet boxes, invitation cards, and cigarette packets, plastic or PVC banners less than 100 micron, stirrers,’ it read. The notification stated that the provisions would not apply to compostable plastic products.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in June 2018 that India will eliminate all single-use plastics by 2022.
In 2019, during the fourth United Nations Environment Assembly, India had piloted a resolution on addressing single-use plastic products pollution, recognizing the urgent need for the global community to focus on this issue. As per the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, the Environment Ministry said plastic packaging wastes not covered by the phase-out of single-use plastic items should be collected and managed in an environmentally sustainable way through the Extended Producer Responsibility of producer, importer, and brand owner (PIBOs). To effectively implement extended producer responsibility, the revised rules have given legal force to the guidelines being presented.
The Extended Producer Responsibility policy issue requires producers to take responsibility for managing the final disposal of their products when deemed no longer useful by consumers. The Centre had earlier instructed states and union territories to set up a task force to eliminate single-use plastic (SUP) and to ensure effective implementation of the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.
As of July 23, 14 states and UTs had been represented by the special task force as per a reply from Minister of State for Environment Ashwini Choubey in Parliament. The Environment Ministry has also established a task force to coordinate efforts in this area. The state and UT governments, and the central ministries and departments involved have also been instructed to develop a comprehensive action plan due to the need to eliminate SUP and to put in place the regulations in a timely manner.
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