Today Current Affairs - Latest Current Affairs - Current Affairs

Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has instructed several dozen companies including Pepsi, Coca-Cola to suggest alternative packaging materials in three days. Single use plastic will be banned from 2 October 2019 in India.

Ram Vilas Paswan had called a meeting of officers and manufacturers of the concerned ministries to consider measures to ban plastic bottles of drinking water. He said that plastic plays the highest role in causing maximum damage to the environment. Apart from this, it is proving very dangerous for the health of humans and cattle.

Highlights of meeting

• In this meeting, all the manufacturers have been asked to submit their suggestions in writing to the Secretary of the Ministry by 11 September 2019.
• These suggestions will be sent to the Inter-Ministerial Committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary and the Prime Minister's Office.
• Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has advised to make people aware about diseases and environmental pollution caused by plastic effects.
• He said that recycling is definitely a solution, but it is not a permanent solution.
• Restrictions on its use are the only effective solution.
• Ram Vilas Paswan said on 09 September 2019 that an inter-ministerial committee was formed under the chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary.
• This committee has been ordered to look into the issue of banning single-use plastics in one go or in a phased manner.
• Prime Minister Modi has planned to make the country completely plastic-free by the year 2022.
• It will start from 2 October 2019.
• This ban will stop using plastic bags, cups, plates, small bottles and other items made of plastic.
• In a speech given on Independence Day, PM Modi appealed to the people and government agencies to make the country plastic free.

Single use Plastics

• Single-use plastic is a plastic that we use only once.
• One-use plastic is called single-use plastic. We also call it disposable plastic.
• However, it can be recycled. We use it in our everyday work.
• The deteriorating environment due to climate change is the biggest concern for the world.
• In such a situation, stopping pollution caused by plastic has emerged as a big problem.
• Every year several lakh tons of plastic is being produced, which is not biodegradable in the soil.
• Therefore, countries around the world are making a drastic strategy to end the use of single-use plastic.
• Single use plastic gets only 7.5 percent recycling.
• The rest of the plastic is found in the soil, which reaches the sea with the help of water and causes great harm to the organisms there.
• Most plastics break down and release toxic chemicals at some time.
• These chemicals reach our body through water and food materials and cause great harm.