Himachal: Single-use plastic Buy back scheme

June 27, 2022

Central government is all set to ban the use of single-use plastic from July 1, 2022. In line with centre’s decision, Himachal Pradesh launched the “Single-Use Plastic Buy Back Scheme”.

Single-Use Plastic Buy Back Scheme

Under the Single-Use Plastic Buy Back Scheme, Himachal Pradesh government would purchase the single-use plastic items from students of schools and colleges.
This move will instil a sense of environment preservation among them, by ‘catching them young’.
Under it, students will be encouraged to bring single-use plastic items from home and deposit it with schools.
For this, government will pay Rs 75 per kg to students.
Scheme was launched with the aim of inculcating habit among youngsters towards environment protection.

Single Use Plastic Ban

Ministry Of Environment Forest and Climate Change had notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021. These rules were notified to prohibit specific single-use plastic items, that have “high littering potential and low utility” by 2022.

Provisions of the Rules

As per rules, manufacturing, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of identified single-use plastic will be banned from July 1, 2022.
This ban will not be applicable to commodities made of compostable plastic.
To ban other plastic commodities in future, other than listed one, government has provided ten years to industries, from the date of notification for compliance.
Permitted thickness of the plastic bags have been increased to 75 microns, from 50 microns, starting from September 30, 2021 and to 120 microns from December 31, 2022.

Who is the monitoring authority?

The Central Pollution Control Board, and state pollution bodies, are the monitoring authority. They will monitor the ban, identify violations, and impose penalties that have been under Environmental Protection Act, 1986.

Single-use Plastics

Single-use Plastics are also known as disposable plastics. They are used only once, before they are recycled or thrown away. Plastic is so convenient and cheap that it has replaced other materials from packaging industry. However, it takes hundreds of years to disintegrate. In India, 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste is generated every year, out of which 43% is single use plastic.

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