The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change vide its notification dated 11th March 2021 has notified The Draft Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2021 to further amend the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.
The Amendment brings in a new definition to the term Non-woven plastic bags which states as follows:
Non women plastic bags which is made up of sheet or web structured fabric of entangled fibers or filaments (and by perforating films) bonded together by mechanical or thermal or chemical means. The Non-woven fabric is a flat or tufted porous sheet that is made directly from fibres, molten plastic or plastic films.
Further the term Plastic Waste Processing – means any process by which plastic waste is handled for the purpose of reuse, recycling, co-processing or transformation into new products.
Rule 4 deals with certain conditions to be followed by the manufacturer or importer in which it has been amended stating that the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of the following single-use plastic commodities shall be prohibited from 1st January, 2022:
Ear buds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polystyrene [Thermocol] for decoration.
The manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of following single-use plastic commodities shall be prohibited from 1st July, 2022:
single-use plastic (including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene) items: plates, cups, glasses, cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straw, trays, wrapping/packing films around sweet boxes; invitation cards; and cigarette packets, plastic/PVC banners less than 100 micron, stirrers.
However, the above provision shall not apply to commodities (including carry bags) made of compostable plastic material.
