Ban On SUPs In Rural Areas Of Odisha From 2020 Gandhi Jayanti

Bhubaneswar: After ban on Single Use Plastics (SUPs) in all urban settlements of the State, the State government will soon extend the prohibition to all rural areas by October 2, 2020.

Sources said, a discussion regarding this was held during a high level meeting under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary of Odisha Asit Tripathy.

Under the new action plan, the State government has decided to establish plastic waste processing centers in each district of Odisha. Similarly, the Public Works Department (PWD) has also been directed to use disposed plastic wastes in road construction works. In this regard, the government has announced to launch an extensive campaign for collection of SUPs for massive recycling.

Panchayati Raj department has been directed to gradually restrict the use of single use plastics in rural areas under the plastic waste management rule. This apart in order to curb the rampant use of polythenes, the state government has also decided to engage women Self Help Groups (SHGs) for manufacturing paper and cloth-based carry bags.

The State government had announced last year that use of plastic would be banned in the entire state within two years. The prohibition was first implemented in six municipal corporations and later extended to all urban areas recently.