The Government of Assam has issued a completely prohibited any production, distribution, stocking, sale or use of Single Use Plastic items. This order comes into force from the 1st of July 2022.
This order comes into place after the Government of India had a similar order last year. The main aim for this ban has been to prevent the ever increasing plastic pollution in the country. Single use plastic bottles and packets are gradually filling every place and water body everywhere. Making all manufacturing, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of all forms of singe use plastics prohibited.
This ban also includes polystyrene and expanded polystyrene materials as well. The following are some of the banned commodities.
- Ear buds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice cream sticks and all polystyrene for event decoration.
- Cups, plates, glasses, wrapping or packing films are also included. Cutlery including forks, spoons, knives, straw and trays are also banned.
- Any cover or banner lesser than 100 microns are not allowed.
- Plastic bags with thickness less than 75 microns were already banned on 30th September last year. While those upto 120 microns thickness will be banned from the 31st of December.
This notice will also be for business houses including producers, stockists, shopkeepers, street vendors and e-commerce companies. So as to malls, markets, shopping centers, theaters, tourist destinations, schools, offices, hospitals and colleges and other institutions. No business will even hold inventory of such materials post the due date. Any violation of these rules will attract strict penalties as per the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. It may lead to seizure of inventory, levying of Environment compensation and even closure if found necessary.
