Seeking an eco-friendly environment, now Uttar Pradesh bans plastic use!

Lucknow, July 6: Following the footsteps of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh has also issued a ban on plastic hailing from July 15. Uttar Pradesh is the second state after Maharashtra to enforce a ban on plastic in recent days.

Announcing the news, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, “I hope people will stop using plastic cups, glass, and polythene at every level from July 15, we will require everyone’s cooperation to implement this move.”

In December 2015, the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet approved a complete statewide ban on the distribution; manufacture and sale of polythene carry bags of 40 microns thickness and below. It issued the order following an Allahabad High Court order the previous month.

On November 18, 2015, the Allahabad High Court had ordered the state government to issue a notification applying a complete ban on the sale of polythene across the state by the end of that year. Seeking to make Uttar Pradesh an environment-friendly place, the government decided to implement the order in January 2016, a month after the court’s direction to prohibit the use of plastics.

However, the Noida authority failed to implement the order. After that in the year 2017, the ban again sought to seek the day of light by all in vain. The latest order by the government comes following in the footsteps of Maharashtra government which enforced a similar ban after issuing the Maharashtra Plastic and Thermocol Products (manufacture, usage, sale, transport, handling, and storage) notification in March this year.

The Maharashtra government banned plastic from June 23 and announced that it would fine Rs 5,000 for the first offense, Rs 10,000 for the second, and up to Rs 25,000 and a three-month jail term for repeated violations. Citing the environmental risks and harm caused to wild animals from ingestion or entanglement in plastic, the government enforced the ban with immediate effect.

Under the notification products manufactured from plastic and thermocol have been covered under the ban. As a result usage of plastic bags with a handle and without handle, disposable cups, and plates, spoons, forks, glasses, and containers is prohibited in the state. Plastic packaging used to wrap and store the product is also included in the ban.

The government also gave the manufacturers, distributors, and consumers a period of three months to dispose their existing stock and come up with alternatives to plastic usage.