Cabinet Memorandum to control, dispose of single use of plastics, polythene products tomorrow

The Environment Minister will present a Cabinet Memorandum to the Cabinet tomorrow to control the disposal of single-use plastics and polythene products.

Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said the Cabinet Memorandum will be presented under the program carried out by the Ministry to reduce the use of plastics and polythene.

Accordingly, it is to propose seven types of single use disposable plastic and polythene based products for the ban.

The Cabinet Memorandum includes plastic drinking straws and stirrers, plastic spoons, cups, knives, forks, plastic string hopper plates, plastic artificial grass cover (except for indoor playgrounds), the use of plastic and polythene for garlands made of plastic and polythene, incense sticks for any process, trade, or industry, Grocery bags and ‘"silli silli bags" made of plastic and polythene 12 inches in length, five inches in broad and 10 inches in width are offered for ban.

Earlier, the Ministry had banned five single-use plastics and polythene products, including sachets, from March 31 and the production, distribution, and sale of non-perishable lunch sheets were completely banned from August 1 this year.

He said the decision to ban seven other single-use species was taken in view of the serious environmental and health threat posed by this.

An amount exceeding two billion sili sili bags are released into the environment annually in our country and this would cause huge damage to the ocean as well as drinking water sources, the Minister said.

Finally, he requested people to support and achieve the success of the ban on lunch sheets and sachets, and granary and silly bags. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)