Mounds of plastic waste in the fringes of lakes and tanks, choking storm water drains and channels is a common sight everywhere.
Tonnes of use-and-throw plastic products are causing irreversible damage to the environment and there seems to a ray of hope with the State government firming up its stand on the use of plastic.
The Directorate of Town Panchayats has directed its urban local bodies to stop using plastic products with a thickness less than 50 microns from Independence Day. The directorate, which issued a circular to the urban local bodies, decided to ban aluminium-coated single-time usable plastics, those used for packaging food in hotels and restaurants, polypropylene (non-woven fabric), disposable bags and thermocol/styrofoam products, apart from carry bags with a thickness of less than 50 microns.
Use of plastic products with less than 40-micron thickness has been banned already and a fine has been imposed for its manufacturing, marketing and use in town panchayats, official sources told The Hindu.
Town panchayats have also been asked to sensitise residents and to ensure directives from the Supreme Court on the issue — following a case filed by Vellore Residents Welfare Association — are followed.
The town panchayats have also been asked to launch awareness campaigns and pass a resolution banning plastic use and to encourage people to use cloth bags instead.
Recently, the staff and elected representatives of Sriperumpudur town panchayat took a pledge to stay from the use of plastic.
