Govt told to find ways to get rid of plastic carry bags

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday asked the Delhi government to find out ways and means to get rid of the 8,000 kg of plastic carry bags of less than 50micron thickness that was seized by authorities in the past few days.

The green panel had earlier imposed an interim ban on plastic of less than 50 microns in the capital and also announced that a penalty of `5,000 would be slapped on violators.

Following the order, the government had seized more than 8,000 kg of such plastic, but is still struggling on ways to dispose it as they cannot be dumped at the landfill site and cannot be openly burnt as that would trigger heavy pollution.

On Tuesday, the tribunal asked the Delhi government to explore a disposal mechanism for the non-biodegradable material. A bench headed by NGT chief justice Swatanter Kumar also observed that such a large quantity of plastic could be sent to waste-toenergy plants for scrapping. The matter has been posted for hearing on September 5.

The officials said that the problem is compounded by the fact that the Bureau of Indian Standards hasn’t laid down any norms how to recycle plastic less than 50 microns. Earlier, the city government had said that a sum total of `3 lakh has been collected as fine following the prohibition imposed by the NGT.

“As per reports, 7,739 kg of plastic bags has been seized, 492 challans issued and `2.9 lakh environment compensation has been collected,” the government said.