Environment ministry gears up to phase out single use plastics by 2022

The campaign will involve behavioural change, policy and regulatory regime for phase out of single use plastics, strengthening waste management infrastructure by engaging other ministries, and partnership with industry associations and with producer, importer and brand owners

The Union environment ministry on Tuesday launched a two-month long awareness campaign on single use plastics. A series of events are lined up for the same.

Union minister Prakash Javadekar. (FIle photo)

The ministry issued a draft notification in March this year to phase out single use plastic products in phases by 2022 by amending the plastic waste management rules. The manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of ear buds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polystyrene [thermocol] for decoration will be prohibited from January 1, 2022.

The ban will be extended to single-use plastic (including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene) plates, cups, glasses, cutlery, straw, trays, wrapping or packing films around sweet boxes, invitation cards, and cigarette packets, and plastic or PVC banners less than 100 micron from July 1, 2022.

“Many states have already made legislations to phase out single use plastic. We have decided to curb the use of thin plastic bags below 40 microns thickness and all state governments to keep a check on units manufacturing thin plastic bags,” said Prakash Javadekar, union environment minister in a recorded message. The launch event was disrupted after several international websites faced outages on Tuesday.

The campaign will involve behavioural change, policy and regulatory regime for phase out of single use plastics, strengthening waste management infrastructure by engaging other ministries, and partnership with industry associations and with producer, importer and brand owners, RP Gupta, secretary, ministry of environment and forests said.