Two tonnes of banned plastic seized in raid at Chennai mall

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation conducted its first major plastic raid in the city on Thursday by seizing over two tonnes of plastic from a shopping mall in Perambur. A total of nine tonnes of plastic were seized from commercial establishments around the city by special teams.

“We had given the shopping mall multiple warnings to ensure that the shops inside stop using banned plastic bags and cups but they did not take effort to implement the ban and so we conducted raids there,” said an official, who was part of the team that raided the complex.

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Senior officials in the Corporation’s Health Department said these raids on big complexes would serve as an example for smaller shops and compel them to switch over to eco-friendly alternatives. 

Thiru Vi Ka Nagar and Alandur Zones witnessed the highest number of raids. While more than three tonnes of plastic waste were seized in Thiru Vi Ka Nagar and over a tonne of waste was seized from the Alandur Zone. 

“We have been instructed not to spare commercial establishments that continue to ignore our warnings so we raided shops that persisted in using banned plastic products despite giving us assurances,” said a zonal official from Alandur Zone. 

While awareness programmes such as the one conducted in the 800-student strong Government Industrial Training Institute on Thursday will continue, Corporation officials also said repeat defaulters would be raided. “Using this two-way approach we will remove the banned plastic items from circulation,” said a senior official.