Govt mulls blanket ban on certain plastic products

Thiruvananthapuram: In what could be the first step towards a complete ban on plastic in the state, the government has constituted a five-member technical expert committee to make a list of plastic products to be banned.
The committee has to list out all the consumer plastic products that can be banned completely irrespective of their thickness, including plastic-coated products, plastic-wrapped products, their plastic content, plastic percentage and their harmful impact. It will also submit a recommendation on how to bring in a law to effect a long-time regulation of plastic in the state and will suggest alternative materials that can replace plastic. The committee will submit a report to the government by February 15.

The chief secretary had convened a meeting in November to discuss the issues related to imposition of a complete ban on one time use/throw away plastic items/carry bags. In the meeting a general sentiment was expressed against the ill-effects of plastic.

“The harmful impact of plastic affecting the existing and future generations both health wise and environment wise is a documented one hence it is high time we checked this ever growing use of plastic and therefore, although an immediate/sudden ban is not intended, a decision can’t be postponed for ever,” the order issued by the department of environment, constituting the committee, said.

The committee includes chairman of Kerala state pollution control board who shall be the chairman of the committee; environmental engineer, department of environment and climate change (convener of the committee) P Kalaiarasan; additional director (technical), directorate of industries & commerce (member) Pradeep Kumar K S, a representative of CIPET: Institute of Plastic Technology, Kochi (member/to be nominated) and a representative of Kerala plastic manufacturing association (member/to be nominated).