On this new year day, many would have taken initiative and commitments.

I want to share you all about the initiative taken by my state government, Tamilnadu, India.

The government has announced the policy of banning plastic bags. The announcement has been made 6 months back on World Environment Day ( June 5) and it's officially implemented from today.

Here is the list of banned items

• Plastic sheet/cling film used for food wrapping

• Plastic sheet used for spreading in dinning table

• Plastic thermocol plates

• Plastic coated paper plate

• Plastic coated paper cups

• Plastic tea cup

• Thermocol cups

• Water pouches/packets

• Plastic straw

• Plastic carry bag of all sizes and thickness

• Plastic coated carry bags

• Plastic flags

• Non-woven polypropylene bags

The list of items that are allowed to use

• Plastic bottles

• Plastic banners/board

• Plastic spoon

• Packed grocery items

• Compostable carry bag of any thickness

• Plastic containers

• Plastic stationeries

The alternative that is expected to use instead of plastic

• Plant leaves

• Aluminium foils

• Paper rolls

• Paper straw

• Glass/metal cups

• Bamboo, wooden products

• Cloth/paper/jute bags

• Paper/cloth flags

• Ceramic wares Earthen cutleries and pots

The advantages of implementation of this policy

• Of course, the plastic usage is expected to reduce. The plastic bags play important role in polluting environment.

• The village industry is executed to grow. Because for manufacturing of plant leaf based products, Bamboo product, earthen pots are dependent heavily on village manpower.

Criticisms on this policy

• Several argue that the "Packed grocery items" also greatly contribute to the plastic pollution. So government should also ban them. ( I personally disagree with this argument, because of practical difficulties)
• The alternatives the plastic are not yet widely available and they are relatively costlier than plastic.
• Over 6 lakh people are directly or indirectly involved in the manufacturing of the banned plastic items. So their livelihood is uncertain.

Way forward

• First of all, we should change our mentality. we have to avoid using plastic bags as much as possible. We should always keep a cotton bag with ourselves when ever we go for shopping. We should not get new bags each time from shop and throughout them. we have to re-use.
• The government should give subsidiaries and loans to encourage enterprises for the manufacturing of plastic alternative.
• The existing plastic bag manufacturing units should try to adopt to the process of manufacturing plastic alternatives or to produce the allowed plastic items.
• New innovative should be encouraged by the government for finding plastic alternative that are cheap and environmental friendly.

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