Municipal officials create awareness on plastic ban in Jorhat. File picture

Jorhat, June 22: More than 50 workers of a polymer factory here are facing unemployment following the ban on use of plastics by the Jorhat district administration from July 5.

The owners of the factory are also set to lose Rs 2 crore, which was taken as loan from a bank for setting up the factory, Jorhat Polymer Industries, in 2010.

One of the partners, L.N. Karnany, in separate representations to the Jorhat Municipal Board and deputy commissioner R.C. Jain stated that the ban order was in violation of a Gauhati High Court order against a similar order of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) banning the use of plastics in Guwahati.

The high court order in the recent case of North East Plastic Manufacturers’ Association versus the state of Assam and Guwahati Municipal Corporation, stated that under Rule 4 of the Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2011, the municipal authorities are given the responsibility of disposal of plastic waste but the role does not empower the municipal authorities to regulate the manufacture and sale of plastic products.

Further, the rule authorises the Pollution Control Board to address the activities of the manufacturers and since the petitioners are manufacturers of plastic, the court is of prima facie view that the commissioner and the GMC is not competent to target the manufacturer.

Karnany said the polymer industry here produced only disposable plastic glasses, plates and cups and not plastic bags of less than 40 microns, which are already banned.

“We manufacture disposable plastic items used in marriages and other community feasts and in tea and coffee shops because they are cheap in comparison to similar paper items — 20 paise per glass compared to 60 paise for the paper one.”

“From the first day of manufacturing we have been complying with all terms and conditions stipulated by the Pollution Control Board, Assam. We are also providing employment opportunity to local youths,” he added.

The ban order, Karnany said would put a great strain on all the partners as a huge amount of money had been invested with financial assistance from Allahabad Bank to purchase of raw material, production of semi-finished and finished goods in the factory. Moreover, there is stock lying in the market.

“The sudden restriction on sale and use of plastic would collapse the economic foundations of all involved in this sector, particularly of a large number of workers which would become unemployed overnight,” he said.

Another partner said a Press Information Bureau release issued on February 7, 2011, by the ministry of environment and forests mentioned that it was impractical and undesirable to impose a blanket ban on the use of plastic all over the country. The real challenge is to improve municipal solid waste management systems, it said.

In addition to the privatisation and mechanisation of solid waste management systems there was a need to be sensitive to the needs and concerns of lakhs of people involved in the informal sector, the release said.