Mumbai civic body yet to work out system for plastic ban in city
While a plastic ban is enforced in the city from Sunday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is yet to come up with Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for implementing it.
Among the many queries, the one which has led citizens to worry is the disposal of banned items including plastic bags, cutlery, and thermocol among others in a limited time.
Consumers have between 15 days and a month, and manufacturers have up to three months to make the changes recommended by the government, before the punitive action for violations begin.The BMC is also faced with the daunting task of recycling the collected plastic, as the civic body is already struggling to get contractors to process waste at its two landfills.
“The local vendors have already stopped giving plastic bags. But there are no alternatives provided. In addition, there is no communication from the side of the authorities on the disposal of plastic bags and cutlery from houses. The government
MUMBAI:
will not be able to make the ban a success if it adopts such a hurried approach,” said Kusum Agarwal, a homemaker from Malad.
One of the first steps that are likely to be taken by the BMC would be to ban plastic bags from the 97 municipal markets across the city. Civic officials informed that for the next course of action regarding the implementation of the ban, different collection points would be allotted across the city, in a meeting with the BMC commissioner on Monday and Tuesday. As per the state government notification, airports, railway stations, bus stands would be included in the collection points.
The civic body is also considering and checking the feasibility of setting recycling units at the 36 segregation centres in the city. Currently, workers appointed by NGOs, segregate dry waste at these centres. To make the ban more effective and ease the transition, civic body is also considering to seek help from the citizen groups. The civic body wants to prioritise awareness among citizens on the use of plastic and introduce ward-level inspections in shops and markets by ‘plastic ban squads’.