Nagaland says no to single-use plastic items

KOHIMA, Nagaland: Through an official notification issued on April 25, the Government of Nagaland introduced a complete ban on single-use plastic items in the state w.e.f. July 1, 2022.

The ban has been imposed to implement the Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2021, which aims to prohibit the manufacturing, stockpiling, sale and use of single-use plastic items by 2022 in a phased manner.

The state government, through an official notification, has declared that manufacturing, import, stockpiling, distribution, sale and use of single-use plastic items such as polystyrene, expanded polystyrene, plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, thermocol items for decorations, plastic and poly-vinyl banners of than more than 100-micron thickness will be banned w.e.f. from July 1, 2022. All the major institutions in the state, such as hotels, restaurants, educational institutions, offices, industrial units, offices of the state government, including the military and paramilitary organizations have been asked to abide by the rules. District Level Task Force has been established to oversee the implementations of these rules, and the district administration, sub-divisional administration and the Urban Local Bodies are empowered to take a call on penalizing the delinquents.