Bhubaneswar, April 26: Shopkeepers in the city who want to sell commodities in plastic bags will have to shell out Rs 4,000 per month to the municipal corporation.
The Centre had on March 18 this year notified the new Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, to manage the country's massive burden of plastic waste. Following this, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation held a meeting yesterday where it decided to complete the preparation of bylaws and implement the rules in next six months.
Interested shopkeepers will have to register with the corporation to sell items in plastic bags and pay the amount every month.
Municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar told The Telegraph that the central government had brought the new rules and asked all the urban local bodies to prepare bylaws or a state statute under which provisions should be made for such registration. He said the new rules aimed to discourage the use of plastic.
"We already conducted a meeting to discuss the bylaws under the new plastic waste management rules. It will be implemented in the city within the six months. According to the rules, cities are free to prescribe higher plastic waste management fees depending upon the production or sale capacity," said Kumar.
City-based environmentalists welcomed the new rules and hailed it as an appropriate step to discourage the use of plastic.
"Plastic is a hazardous material. The government from time to time had put ban on its use, but failed due to lack of mechanism and manpower," said environmentalist and director of Centre for Environmental Studies Sailabala Padhi.
She said that the implementation of the new rule in the city that allowed the urban local body to collect higher fees from the retailers or shopkeepers would definitely discourage the practice. "I hope people will avoid using plastics rather than pay a high price for its management," said Padhi.
However, small-scale retailers and street vendors are unhappy with the new rule. "The city administration has already imposed a ban on the use of plastic below 40 microns and we abided by that, but the new rule of collecting higher fees is a discrimination against us," said Raju Baral, a fancy shop owner in Saheed Nagar.
Big malls and shops charge money from customers for plastic bags, but it would not be the same with street vendors or vegetable sellers, said Rajani Maharana, a customer. "It would be absurd to pay Rs 5 to a vegetable seller for a plastic carry bag when I buy something worth Rs 10," said Maharana.
The rules are also likely to discourage manufacturers of plastic carry bags. Under the rules, a provision called extended producers' responsibility will come into play where giant producers and generators of plastic or plastic waste will have to pay charges to the civic body for the management of the plastic waste.
This provision is likely to affect giants such as Omfed as they need a lot of plastic bags.
"We have not yet been notified about it by the municipal corporation. We are already using plastic according to the norms prescribed in the rules. We will abide by the new rules once they come into force," said an official of Omfed.
The ministry also increased the minimum thickness of plastic carry bags from 40 microns to 50 microns. Although, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has no mechanism to check the thickness of plastic being used, its officials hope that the new rules will be effective in checking the use of plastic.
