While the ban is a practical and necessary action to safeguard the environment, it could prove to be a nightmare for trade and industry in the lack of comparable alternatives, according to CAIT. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), a trade body, has urged the government to delay the ban on single-use plastic due to a lack of alternatives on the market. The prohibition will go into force on July 1st.
While the ban on single-use plastic is a pragmatic step and much needed to protect the environment, the association, which represents scores of small and medium traders across India, said in a letter to Union environment minister Bhupendra Yadav that it could prove to be a nightmare for trade and commerce in the absence of equivalent alternatives. Starting next month, India will prohibit the use of single-use plastic products such as plates, cups, straws, trays, and polystyrene. Several industries that rely on the use of such products, on the other hand, have opted for a phased transition to plastic substitutes rather than a complete prohibition.
The government has stated that any notification prohibiting the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of carry bags, plastic sheets or the like, or multi-layered packaging and single-use plastic, including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene, commodities issued after this notification will take effect ten years from the date of publication. “It’s possible that the government did it to give recycling units more time to comply with its rules. Due to the closure of production units and consumer markets in the previous two years as a result of the coronavirus (Covid) pandemic, several plastics units, particularly those in the MSMEs category, have experienced a significant economic crisis.
While the business community supports the government on this subject, CAIT believes that not enough preparations have been done to provide an equivalent replacement to single-use plastic. CAIT also recommended organizing a task force made up of top officials and stakeholders to develop a schedule for the order’s implementation and look for plastic alternatives.” Until and unless enterprises and industrial units are forced to stop using single-use plastic in the production line or the packaging of finished items,” they noted, “there will always be an opportunity for single-use plastic at the consumer end.”
Meanwhile, they looked for alternative carry bags to replace plastic carry bags. Thousands of industries and production units work in the plastics industry, which employs thousands of people. “If single-use plastic is phased out, their business operations will cease, potentially resulting in the layoff of all employees in these organizations.” The government should carve out some feasible alternatives in this setting so that these industries and production firms can thrive.
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