The Central Business District has emerged as a source of plastic bags for plastic roads in the city.
Plastic bags that have less than a 40-micron thickness have been banned, as per the provisions of the Centre’s notification on Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011.
Tonnes of such bags are being seized by civic body officials from business establishments that continue to violate rules even after the enforcement has been intensified.
On Saturday, officials raided business establishments in George Town in streets such as Pidariamman Koil Street and seized over 500 kg of banned plastic bags. The civic body has seized over five tonnes of illegal plastic bags in a few streets of George Town this week, said an official of the civic body.
The seized plastic bags are to be a source of plastic for the proposed road re-laying projects in the city. “We will use the seized plastic bags for plastic roads after shredding them. We are not filing an FIR now,” said an official.
Most retail outlets in the city prefer plastic bags with a thickness of less than 20 microns, according to workers at a number of manufacturing units.
The Corporation in June commenced an intensified drive to stop selling of plastic bags below 40 microns. During the commencement of the raid, the civic body claimed that it seized over 4.97 tonnes of plastic bags.
Many of the units located in areas such as Muthamizh Nagar, where a small-scale plastic bag manufacturing unit was sealed for violating the rules in June, have stopped such illegal manufacturing.
But the wholesale dealers who had already acquired huge stocks of illegal plastic bags are trying to sell it. This has facilitated the continual seizure of plastic bags by civic body even after many weeks of intensified raids.
