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Goa plans to free itself from plastic from tomorrow

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panjim

The administration plans to liberate Goa from hazardous plastic from Independence Day on August 15.

All municipalities and village panchayats have been geared up to ban the use of recycled bags that have a thickness below 20 microns. To begin with, black bags will be prohibited from any use immediately.

It is common in Goa now to ask vendors for free black or coloured bags, rather than white ones, for marketing.

"These translucent bags are a major source of garbage as they cannot be reused and are thrown out anywhere," said Dr N P S Varde, director of science, technology and environment department, who is co-ordinating the drive against plastic.

The authorities plan to prohibit all pigments or colorants, since most are recycled. The Recycled Plastic Manufacture and Usage Rules, 1999, a notification issued by the Centre under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, is being used as a weapon to enforce it.

The Goa State Pollution Control Board authorities, who are supposed to prohibit the manufacture of such recycled plastic bags, have sent notices to at least 40 such plastic manufacturers in the state. But most such bags are imported from Belgaum, the neighbouring commercial city in Karnataka.

District collectors have pulled up sleeves to strictly enforce the ban from August 15, by putting up boards at all marketplaces through the civic and panchayat authorities, while planning raids from the next day to seize such stocks from dealers.

The state has written to the ministry of environment and forests to empower the local authorities to compound violators on the spot.

Politicians are still hesitant about enforcing the more effective Goa Non-Biodegradable Garbage (Control) Act, 1996.

The Act, which has came into force in Goa from January 1, 1998, has powers to compound and penalise the violators, while the courts can even imprison violators for almost a month.

Plastic has become a menace for a tourist state like Goa with beaches littered and drains in prime towns being clogged with plastic bags.

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