In a meeting held in Gandhinagar on Friday, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and Surat Municipal Corporation have been asked to implement a ban on the single-use plastic. The officials of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board were present in the meeting too.

After being slammed by the National Green Tribunal, the stakeholders have been told to strictly follow and implement plastic ban rules. ]The civic body has already imposed a blanket ban on the use of plastic items that are harmful to the environment. Items like cups, glass, bag and water pouch etc are strictly banned.

The ban was successfully implemented, and AMC had collected more than Rs 1 crore from the units who were selling or producing the banned plastic.

"There is a ban on usage of plastic below 40 microns. Plastic cups and water pouches were not being sold anywhere after May 2018. We have learnt that at some places the plastic bags are being used, and we are going to impose a heavy fine on them," said Harshad Solanki, director, solid waste management, AMC.

"Now our focus is on all the single-use plastic. We will impose a ban on items like bags, straws, stirrers, food packaging etc," added the officer.

Solanki said that despite the ban, plastic waste is being dumped at the transfer station and at dumping site. "To prevent such waste, we will ban it further. The plastic manufacturing units have been informed not to produce and sell the banned items," said Solanki.

IN BRIEF

• The civic body has already put a blanket ban on the use of plastic that are harmful to the environment. Plastic items like cups, glass, bag and water pouch were banned too.   
• The ban was successfully implemented, and AMC collected more than ` 1 crore from the units who were selling or producing the banned plastic.