Jajpur district administration will ban the use of polythene and plastic materials in the town from next month. The ban will be effective from 1 Marchand the district authorities will also make green protocol mandatory for all celebrations and festivals in the district headquarters town.

“We have decided to stop use of polythene or anything of plastic materials below 50 microns of thickness in the Jajpur city from next month,” said Jajpur collector Ranjan Kumar Das. The collector had convened a meeting in the DRDA conference hall to discuss on the issue on Monday afternoon. Besides, a host of government officials, state pollution control board officials, district police boss, business establishments, traders, trading associations representatives, citizen committees, social activists, Non Government Organisation and district environment society office bearers attended it.

The collector said,“We have taken a decision in the meeting to introduce paper bag and cotton carry bag to the alternatives to polythene and plastic bags. The street vendors, shop owners, business establishments have been asked to exhaust their polythene stock by 28th of this month”. He said that a massive awareness drive will be launched to aware the customers and the general public about ban on polythene packaging material and alternative to it.

“The idea is to educate the public on how to switch to paper or cloth bags as an alternative to polythene or plastic carry bags. For this, we are in the process of organising meeting across the town and huge publicity,” said the collector. The district administration plans to hold meetings with all municipal wards across the town to discuss the ban on polythene and plastic carry bags. “We will publicise the initiative through both print and electronics media,” the collector said.

For the first time the district authorities banning it in the district head qurters town. It will ban use of polythene in the next city at Vyas Nagar in the second phase. The collector said the proposed ban addresses the concerns over increasing use of polythene and plastic carry bags by individuals and its impact on environment. However, it is likely to hit the retailers, street vendors, restaurants, vegetables sellers and outlets selling take away food as well as manufacturers of the polythene and plastic material.