The Ministry has notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021 on 12th August 2021 prohibiting identified single use plastic items, which have low utility and high littering potential, by 2022.

As far as, plastic carry bags are concerned, the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, prohibits manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of plastic carry bags having thickness less than seventy five microns with effect from 30th September, 2021, and having thickness less than thickness of one hundred and twenty microns with effect from the 31st December, 2022.Further, over and above the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, as amended, 34 states/UTs have issued notifications/orders to introduce regulations pertaining to complete or partial ban on plastic carry bags and/or identified single-use plastic items.

The Central Pollution Control Board in its report on “Impact of Plastic Waste Disposal on Soil and Water Quality at Lucknow Dumpsites” had found that dumping of plastic waste can deteriorate soil and underground water quality due to leaching of additives, colourants, stabilizers and fillers present in the different categories of plastic products.

This information was given by Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change in Lok Sabha today.

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HRK/PD/VL