Centre’s grievance app against single use plastic

New Delhi: The Central government on Tuesday will launch “Prakriti,” a grievance app, a “green initiative on plastic” with the goal of ridding the country of single-use plastic (SUP) this year. The App will be launched by Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav and Minister of State Ashwini Kumar Choubey. The Central Pollution Control Board tweeted that any person who sees the manufacturing, sale and usage of single-use plastic in their areas can report or share their grievances by using this app.

India will implement a blanket ban on certain single-use plastic items from July 1, 2022 following its 2019 resolution to address plastic pollution in the country. The prohibited plastic items include earbuds, flags, candy and ice-cream sticks, decorative thermocol, PVC banners less than 100 microns thick, stirrers, wrapping films, cups, glasses and cutlery among others. Additionally, no plastic carry bags less than 120 microns thick can be used after December 31.

According to a fact sheet released by the Environment Ministry and the Energy and Resources Institute (TERFI), a think tank, approximately 43 per cent of plastic is used for packaging, with the majority being single-use. The per capita plastic use in India is about 9.7 kg, mostly packaging material, the central pollution body estimates. It is observed that the per capita plastic waste generation has almost doubled over the last five years. The report said Goa, Delhi and Kerala have reported the highest per capita plastic waste generation. Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura have reported the lowest per capita plastic waste generation.

Earlier, the Union Environment Ministry notified the extended producer responsibility (EPR) guidelines for plastic packaging waste. To be implemented from July 1, the new regulations mandate the recycling and reuse of a certain percentage of plastic produced by manufacturers, importers and brand owners. Registering with the central and state pollution control boards has also been made compulsory under the new rules.