Single Use Plastic Ban In India

[Nitin Kumar]

The government's proposed countrywide ban had dismayed consumer firms, which use plastic in packaging for everything from sodas and biscuits to ketchup and shampoo.


India has held off imposing a blanket ban on single-use plastics to combat pollution, officials said on Tuesday, a measure seen as too disruptive for industry at a time when it is coping with an economic slowdown and job losses.

The plan was for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to outlaw six items on Wednesday, the 150th anniversary of the birth of independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, as part of a broader campaign to rid India of single-use plastics by 2022.
But two officials said there would be no immediate move to ban plastic bags, cups, plates, small bottles, straws and certain types of sachets and instead the government would try to curb their use.

For now, the government will ask states to enforce existing rules against storing, manufacturing and using some single-use plastic products such as polythene bags and styrofoam, Chandra Kishore Mishra, the top bureaucrat at the ministry of environment, told Reuters.


"There is no new ban order being issued," Mishra said. "Now, it's a question of telling people about the ill-effects of plastic, of collecting and sending for recycling so people don't litter."
The government's proposed countrywide ban had dismayed consumer firms, which use plastic in packaging for everything from sodas and biscuits to ketchup and shampoo.

The Confederation of Indian Industry, a lobby group, said the move had become an existential issue for several economic sectors because alternatives were not immediately available.

It said small-sized plastic bottles used for pharmaceutical or health products should be exempted as there is no alternative available. Sachets made from so-called multi-layered packaging should also not be banned, as that could disrupt supplies of products like biscuits, salt, and milk, the confederation said.

[Nitin Kumar]

Doctors Remove 52 Kg Plastic From Cow's Stomach


Surgeons from Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS) operated on the bovine to remove the plastic which was ingested by the bovine over a period of two years probably while foraging for food.

team of veterinarians in Tamil Nadu have removed 52 kilograms of plastic from the stomach of a cow. The plastic was removed through a surgery which lasted for over five hours in Vepery, Chennai. The waste in the cow's stomach also included needles, a coin, a screw, and pins.
Surgeons from Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS) operated on the bovine to remove the plastic which was ingested by the bovine over a period of two years probably while foraging for food.

The cow was brought to the TANUVAS, Chennai by its owner after he noticed something was wrong with her. The animal was visibly in pain. It recently gave birth to a calf and had difficulties yielding milk. The animal also struggled to urinate and defecate, and frequently kicked its stomach with its legs.
An X-Ray and Ultrasound scan revealed that the cow's stomach had plastic which had occupied 75 percent of the rumen (one of the four chambers of the cow's stomach).

On Friday, the cow was operated from 11 am to 4:30 pm. The cud also had to be removed from the cow and the cow is being treated with a transplanted cud.

[MiniGupta]

Most shopkeepers have stopped giving away bags for free or at a low price. Consumers have been forced to buy carry bags worth anything between Rs 15 to Rs 25.

[MiniGupta]

Mulugu District Collector C Narayan Reddy has come up with the ‘1 kg rice for 1 kg plastic’ initiative, which encourages citizens to collect single-use plastics and exchange it for 1 kilogram of rice.

The initiative was started on October 16, and since then authorities have collected 33,200 kgs of plastic. Mulugu has a total of 174 Gram Panchayats, and the authorities had set up single-use plastic collection points in every Gram Panchayat office. “It is very simple, the citizens need to drop the plastic at these collection points and based on how much it weighs, the equal quantity of rice would be given,” District Collector says. The collected plastic would then be sent to cement manufacturing units.

The DC claims the idea for the ‘1 kg rice for 1 kg plastic’ came during a school competition. “In Jakaram village, we held a competition for schools. We promised them a cricket kit if they collected 1,000 kgs of plastic and they performed the task. So, we thought that if we give some incentive, people would actively participate in the programme.”

As part of the initiative to combat plastic, the authorities are also distributing free cloth bags, so that the people don't face any inconvenience while making purchases at grocery stores. The authorities have distributed 35,000 cloth bags. "By paying an honorarium of Rs 300 for each tailor, we hired a tailor in every village. The job of the tailor is to stitch bags for free for those who come with old and new clothes," he says.