Thiruvananthapuram: The anti-plastic campaign by the corporation is finding followers in neighbouring local bodies as well. Attingal municipality, which has already earned a reputation in scientific processing of biodegradable waste, will impose ban on plastic carry bags and related products from this Vishu (April 14). The municipality has decided to impose the ban (regardless of size) just like Thiruvananthapuram corporation.
Attingal municipality chairman M Pradeep said that the ban was being imposed as the inflow of plastic at the waste plant threatened to derail the functioning of biodegradable waste management plant. "Plastic waste piled up at the waste plant and a ban seemed to be the sole solution. The ban will be in effect from April 14," said Pradeep.
In 2016, the municipality had mulled imposing a ban on plastic carry bags, but the plan was dropped due to the protest by merchants. This time, the municipality went through a preparatory phase and planned things in advance. The annual fee mandated by plastic waste (management and handling rules) 2016 was not collected from merchants (during licence renewal). The merchants were spared of Rs 48,000 and municipality did not have to deal with grievances on loss of money from merchants.
"We are imposing the ban with the complete support of merchants. Meetings were convened to reach a consensus on this issue. We had given them three months to clear the stock they had already collected and after that period, we will impose stricter measures like cancellation of licence or levying fine up to Rs 10,000," said Pradeep.
Attingal municipality has already supplied 1 tonne of plastic waste to Clean Kerala Company as per the government order which directed local bodies to do 10% road works using plastic. The shredding unit installed by the municipality processes 15kg of plastic a day. It is then handed over to a private party based in Tamil Nadu.