Handing over waste in polythene bags? You may be fined

Gurgaon: The second phase of MCG’s waste segregation campaign will aim at reducing the use of polythene bags and single-use plastics. MCG officials said the sanitation teams will urge residents to stop giving their waste in polythene bags and such bags in their waste for a week. Subsequently, violators could be penalised.
“Our focus now is to minimise the use of polythene. We have constituted teams of the sanitation department, which will ask the residents to stop giving their waste in polythene bags and also stop giving polythene as part of their waste,” said MCG commissioner Mukesh Kumar Ahuja.
“The teams will apprise the residents for a week and then it will be followed by action against the violators. This may also include imposing challans. The best way to reduce the use of polyethene is to carry cloth bags to markets,” he said.
Ahuja on Tuesday also asked the department officials to ensure that the vehicles transporting waste don’t have polythene mixed in it. He gave clear directions to ensure that polythene should not even reach secondary collection points and if that happens, the sanitation officials will be held responsible.
MCG has also constituted teams to check the use of banned single-use plastic in markets. However, the officials said that traders and residents have again started using banned single-use plastics since the teams are now diverted for waste segregation.
On the substitutes for polythene bags for garbage, Ruchika Sethi Takkar of Why Waste your Waste, said, “The substitute is using no bin liners. People can use papers to line bins for biomedical waste. People can directly empty their bins in collection carts.”