Norms issued for reopening plastics units

The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has issued guidelines to manufacturers of single use plastics for reopening their units after switching over to other items. At present, over 150 such units in the State are not functioning following the ban.

Sources in the TNPCB said that these companies had been asked to switch over to either eco-friendly products or products not included in the ban and submit fresh consent application forms to it.

Directive to engineers

“All district environmental engineers of the Board have been directed to accept applications from such units and process them on priority basis,” explained an official source.

The units have been asked to submit applications with name of the product and its end use and the quantity proposed to be manufactured. At a meeting held here on Tuesday, the units have been asked to ensure that existing machinery would be used for manufacturing only the proposed products.

The Board has directed the units to print the name of the manufacturer, consent and registration details and end use of the plastic product manufactured on the product. If the manufacturer possessed a valid consent and had applied for product change utilising the existing machinery, the Board would consider provision of direct consent to operate for the same validity. In such cases, additional consent fee would be collected, said a release here.