Enforcement of Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules 2000 and Recycled Plastics Manufacture and Usage (Amendment) Rules 2003 would ensure safe disposal of waste plastic instead of a blanket ban on plastic use, said manufacturers and merchants on Sunday.Addressing a press conference here, the president of Tamil Nadu-Pondy Plastic Manufacturers and Merchants' Association, G. Sankaran, felt that when plastic had become an essential public need it would not be prudent to enforce a blanket ban. He claimed that the association was not against the rules that prohibited use of plastic bags below a certain thickness (20 microns). But it strongly opposed the forceful seizure of plastic bags and other items that were above 20 microns in some places, especially Kanyakumari district, in an attempt to enforce a blanket ban. Mr. Sankaran said that there was no hazard involved in the manufacture and sale of plastic items but problems cropped up only during their disposal. It was also impossible to clamp a ban on plastic use.
Tamil Nadu, he said, required around 12 lakh tonnes of plastic articles in a year but the local production capacity was five lakh tonnes. The gap was being filled by manufacturers from outside the State.
P. Sitaraman, president, Plastic Manufacturers' Association of Madurai, alleged that plastic goods that were of stipulated quality were being seized from traders in Kanyakumari district. No receipt was given for the seized goods to the trader. He said that polythene was an internationally accepted packing material and no other material had been found as a substitute. The civic bodies, he said, should enforce solid waste management effectively and the government should also encourage use of waste plastic to blend with bitumen for laying roads utilising the technology developed by the Thiagarajar College of Engineering here.
The president of Kanyakumari District Plastic Manufacturers' Association, Ashok Kumar, alleged that even the public using plastic bags were being fined. The president of Tirupur District Plastic Manufacturers' Association, Shanmugam, insisted that segregation of waste should take place at source and said that the manufacturers were ready to buy waste plastic. The manufacturers and traders were also concerned about the environment but a blanket ban on use of plastic would not help, he said.
Rules
The Recycled Plastics Manufacture and Usage (Amendment) Rules, 2003, state that no person shall manufacture, stock, distribute or sell carry bags made of virgin or recycled plastic bags which are less that 8 X 12 inches (20 X 30 cm) in size and which do not conform to the minimum thickness specified in Rule 8.
No vendor shall use carry bags made of recycled plastic for storing, carrying, dispensing or packaging of foodstuffs.
No vendor shall use containers made of recycled plastic for storing, carrying, dispensing or packaging of foodstuffs. The minimum weight of 50 carry bags made of virgin or recycled plastic shall be 105 gm plus or minus 5 per cent variation and the carry bags of larger sizes shall be of proportionate increase in weight.
