Plea to help government reduce use of plastic

Hyderabad: Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration, Arvind Kumar on Thursday urged the plastic waste generators to own it up as a collective responsibility in helping the government reduce the use of plastic. He was speaking at an interactive meeting with various retail agencies and other food outlets of the city.

Admitting that it is impractical and undesirable to impose a blanket ban on the use of plastic, he said that the real challenge is to improve the plastic waste management system. He observed that customers would switch to cloth bags if the price of the bag is not too high. Therefore, the big players in the retail sector should take it as an initiative and work out modalities to bring the cost of the cloth bag to a level which is reasonable from the customers point of view. The government on its part would also encourage the self help groups and micro small and medium enterprises to take up production of cloth bags on a high scale to meet the demand.

He asked the West Zone Zonal Commissioner Harichandana to explore the possibility of facilitating a tie up between the waste generators and manufacturers of compost units. He also said that the field level officers should also be made aware of the plastic waste management rules. Members who took part in the discussion assured the government of their cooperation in making the city less plastic. They urged the government to frame guidelines which are easy to follow. They also suggested to issue a checklist which will enable the generators to implement them. It was felt that onsite source segregation should be done to give thrust on plastic waste minimization.