COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore corporation has chalked out fresh plans to curb use of plastic in the city. The civic body has planned a number of drives, meetings and activities for the purpose in the coming 15 days after which it plans to completely curb plastic usage within the limits of Coimbatore corporation. The city health officer met plastic vendors, businessmen and shop owners on Friday to discuss the challenges and to curb use of plastics below 40 microns.
"Like in most hill stations, we want to make this city a plastic-free zone and so have asked the corporation to come up with required plans for the campaign," said district collector, Archana Patnaik adding that she had also given some suggestions to the civic body.
"The meeting went well and they have suggested a few measures which will be discussed with higher officials before implementation. Next, we plan to meet representatives from schools, educational institutions, retail shops, meat stalls, flower shops, Tasmac shops, wedding halls and eateries. After that we will conduct various drives to create awareness among residents as they need to be actively involved in this campaign. The third step will be to impose fines on the defaulting manufacturer, seller and user," said K Santhosh Kumar, city health officer. As per data from the civic body, of the 800 tonnes of waste collected every day, 10% is plastic.
More than 50 wholesale dealers and shop owners took part in the meeting and asked the civic body to implement laws strictly. "When we were asked to stop the manufacture of plastic bags less than 40 microns, we immediately heeded to the instruction, but various other unauthorized units continue to manufacture bags below 40 microns which affects our business adversely," said S Ramesh Raja, owner, Swateekha Marketing. Several environmentalists also put forth their views and opinions. "After conducting meetings with people from all sectors, we will finalise on the measures that will be implemented and we would ensure that plastic use in the city comes down," said city health officer K Santhosh Kumar.
In 2008 then mayor K Venkatachalam had planned to ban plastic in Coimbatore and make it the first corporation in Tamil Nadu to do so but it was not implemented successfully. After a few years they planned to increase the penalty levied on manufacturers to of 1 lakh from 5,000. The penalty for wholesale sellers was 50,000 and for retailers it was 10,000.
Users were also supposed to be fined upto 200 for dumping plastics on roads and drains. It had also planned to cancel trade licences, conduct raids and seize any plastic below 40 microns. But all these measures were short lived as the civic body failed to implement them.
The union environment ministry and central pollution control board in the Plastic Waste Management and Handling norms of 2011 had set 40 microns and above as the permitted size limit of plastic materials. With non-segregated waste along with 80 tonnes of plastic being dumped at the Vellalore dumpyard, the civic body is finding it difficult to manage it. Moreover, officials said that it was becoming a major ecological threat to the entire area.
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