State in India bans plastic for 3rd time

Long way to go for Seattle

NEW DELHI, July 7, (AFP): India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh, home to 220 million people, announced Friday a ban on plastic cups and polythene use from July 15, in its third such attempt.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged to make India free of single-use plastic by 2022, and the majority of India’s 29 states have a full or partial ban.

However the law is rarely enforced, and Uttar Pradesh’s previous two attempts since 2015 have failed because local authorities refused to implement it, even after court orders.

“We have decided to impose a complete ban on plastic in the state from July 15,” the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, said on Twitter.

“I urge everyone to stop use of plastic cup, glass and polythene after July 15. I seek your support to make the ban a success,” he said.

Details of the proposed ban have yet to be announced, however.

Like in other Indian states, plastic pollution has been a major contributor to pollution of Uttar Pradesh’s rivers, and urban areas are often strewn with plastic bags and bottles.

The Indian government had also declared the area around the Taj Mahal, which is in the state, a plasticfree zone.

Last month a ban on single-use plastics came into force in the 110-million-strong state of Maharashtra, home to India’s commercial capital Mumbai.

Meanwhile, Seattle has become the first major US city to ban plastic straws and utensils in its eateries, a victory for environmentalists that will be tough to replicate elsewhere in the United States.

After targeting plastic bags, environmentalists have set their sights on plastic drinking straws as a public enemy, highlighting the gap between their brief moment of utility and the enduring impact they have on marine creatures, which often ingest discarded plastic.

A video of a turtle visibly in pain and bleeding with a plastic straw stuck in its nose went viral in 2015.

With 725,00 residents, Seattle, which sits off Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest, is the largest US city so far to have banned plastic straws, a move hitherto only a few coastal resorts – such as Malibu last month – have dared to take.

The city’s politicians adopted the ban in 2008, but gave restaurant owners years to find alternatives to plastic straws and cutlery, including compostable items. As of July 1, every infraction of the new ban will cost restaurants owners $250.

Even if consumers can be persuaded not to just throw the straws away, they are generally too narrow to be recyclable, and fall between the screens of recycling facilities.

They wind up in landfills. Rain and wind may then carry them into waterways and ultimately to the sea.

While still in its early stages, there is a global push underway to ban straws.

In related news, Chile’s constitutional court has ratified a bill to ban the use of plastic bags in business, paving the way for it to become the first South American country to do so.

“We are very pleased with the court’s decision, it was the last stage for the enactment of this law,” said environment minister Marcela Cubillos.

The law was passed by Congress on June 1 but last week the Association of Industrial Plastics (Asipla) filed an appeal claiming the move was unconstitutional, which the constitutional court rejected.

Once the government of President Sebastian Pinera enacts the law, shops will have six months to cease using plastic bags, while other small businesses will be given a year to adapt to the new rules.

Chile has been one of the countries leading the way in Latin America against the use of plastic bags.

Modi