Puducherry: The Puducherry government on Wednesday announced its decision to ban plastic packaging materials of 51 micron thickness and below as thinner bags currently pose a major threat to the environment due to their non-disposability and also cause health hazards.
Announcing the decision, Welfare minister M Kandasamy, who also holds the environment portfolio, said the ban will be implemented across the Union Territory within six months. “The government will impose spot fine to shopkeepers who use these materials after the ban come into force,” said the minister.
Hotel and restaurant owners were asked to avoid the use of plastic transparent sheets for packing ‘ready to eat’ food items in and were also asked not to use newspapers for supplying such food items. Shop owners can use alternative natural products for packaging of foods, said the officials.
A joint meeting was held with officials of departments concerned with solid waste management before announcing the decision.
The Centre had notified new plastic waste management rules for the country in March 2016, which carry certain dos and don'ts for manufacturers, distributors, municipal bodies and panchayats, and the government had banned the manufacturing of plastic bags of below 50 microns.
Mr Kandasamy on Tuesday had said that the people are using plastic bags widely and these bags are being thrown into canals and drainages and end up blocking them.
