City corpn seizes over 15,000 kg of single-use plastic from shops

CHENNAI: The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has seized 15,029 kg of banned single-use plastic from shops in April this year.

A Corporation release said that 35,635 shops were raided across the city and 15,029 kg of banned single-use plastic were seized from 8,287 shops. The civic body collected Rs 24.75 lakh as fines from the shops. Additionally, the corporation seized 7,221 kg of single-use plastic from 275 shops in the Royapuram followed by 2,431 kg of plastic from 829 shops in Anna Nagar.

The GCC has urged shopkeepers and the public to avoid using single-use plastic and cooperate with the civic body to make Chennai a plastic-free city.

The state government had banned the single-use plastic items from January 2019. Orders were issued to district administrations and the GCC to constitute task forces.

Last month, the corporation constituted a task force comprising officials from the environment department, police department, labour department, education department and health department. The task force headed by Chennai Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi will have 19 members, apart from the chairman.

“The Greater Chennai area task force will implement the comprehensive action plan prepared by the special task force for the implementation of Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, and the ban notification issued by the state government for phasing out of single-use plastics,” the order had said.

The task force will take measures to strengthen the local body for segregation, collection, storage, transportation, processing and disposal of plastic waste. It’ll conduct awareness activities about plastic pollution by involving educational institutions.