Awareness drive on plastic from July 1

HT Correspondent

NEW DELHI: With the deadline to phase out single use plastic items from July 1 nears, the Delhi government will launch a campaign from July 1 to encourage people to comply with the ban on 19 banned items, environment department officials said on Tuesday.

The department is also organising a three-day fair to promote alternatives to SUP in the Capital between July 1 and July 3 in which residents, entrepreneurs and NGOS can showcase items that are suitable alternatives to the banned material.

Following the latest notification of the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2022 in February, all states and union territories (UTS) were directed to phase out SUPS in a planned manner by July 1, 2022. Some of the banned items include ear buds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice cream sticks made of plastic, thermocol for decoration, plastic cutlery, plastic cigarette packs, plastic stirrers and PVC banners less than 100 microns in thickness. “We have been running awareness campaigns for the last three months now and directions have been given to manufacturers, stockists, suppliers and distributors of SUPS that they need to remove all their inventory for these items. If not, action will be taken against them,” a government official said.

The environment department, along with the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) will also carry out inspections in industrial areas to ensure compliance. The DPCC has already asked the Sriram Institute of Industrial Research to conduct a survey to identify littering hot spots in Delhi and to quantify plastic waste generation in the capital. This is likely to be completed in four months, the officials added.

Officials said the three-day fair between July 1-3 will also include various competitions such as poster-making around the theme of plastic, video-messages on alternatives to single use plastic and quiz competitions, etc.