A nationwide campaign to shun single-use plastic as part of an ongoing clean India mission will start from second week of September.
Sharing the details with the Union Cabinet in the council of ministers' meeting, Secretary Drinking Water and Sanitation Parameswaran Iyer informed that the campaign will be held in three phases.
In the first phase, a nationwide awareness campaign will be held across the country, in the second phase various government agencies will collect single-use plastic items, and in the last phase accumulated items will be recycled.
All the ministries have been asked to participate in the campaign to scrap single-use plastics by 2022. Government may impose penalties for violations after an initial six-month awareness period.
Though a few states and cities in India have already banned thin polythene bags, enforcement is still an issue.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech on August 15, had urged people and government agencies to "take the first big step" on October 2 towards freeing India of single-use plastic.
Why is it bad?
Single-use plastics, or disposable plastics items include things like forks, knives, plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers, soda, ear buds water bottles and most food packaging. They are used only once before they are thrown away.
India consumes about 14 million tonnes of plastic a year. More than 300 million tons of plastic is being used each year globally and half of it is in the disposable form. Less than 13 per cent of the plastics is being recycled.
Toxic chemicals from plastic items we use find its way to our bloodstream and will disrupt the endocrine system which can cause cancer, weak immune system, infertility birth defects, and many other health issues.
The European Union nations aim to stop single-use plastic items by 2021.
(With PTI input)
