Agartala, June 29 : With the decision of the central government to phase out single-use plastic items by this year, Tripura has decided to build about 50 kilometres road stretch in the city using plastic waste in a phased manner, said government spokesperson Sushanta Chowdhury on Wednesday.
Chowdhury said Agartala Smart City Mission had built one kilometre road using plastic waste on an experimental basis and it yielded an impressive result in terms of sustainability and durability of the road and cost of the project besides availability of the materials.
“Taking a cue from the success of one kilometre road stretch in the city made by plastic waste and the decision of phasing out single use plastic, our PWD department has proposed to make all the major roads with non-degradable waste largely single use plastic and the cabinet cleared the nod to go ahead,” Chowdhury stated.
Tripura is generating about 50 MT solid waste everyday and almost 60 percent of it is non-degradable, especially plastic, which is gone for sanitary land filling.
Welcoming the decision of central government, deputy chief minister holding the portfolio of environment Jishnu Dev Varma said the ministry of environment, forest and climate change said
ina release that control rooms has been set up at the national and state level for effective enforcement of the ban on identified single-use plastic items from July 1.
Special enforcement teams will also be formed for checking the illegal manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of banned single-use plastic items, according to the ministry. The ministry added that states and Union Territories have been asked to set up border checkpoints to stop the inter-state movement of any banned single-use plastic items.
“The adverse impacts of littered single use plastic items on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, including in marine environments, are globally recognized. Addressing pollution due to single use plastic items has become an important environmental challenge confronting all countries,” Dev
Varma said.
The list of banned single-use plastic items includes – earbuds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polystyrene (Thermocol) for decoration, plastic plates, cups, glasses, cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straw, trays, wrapping or packaging films around sweet boxes, invitation cards, cigarette packets, plastic or PVC banners less than 100 micron, stirrers.