Lok Sabha Question No. 1148 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-07-29
Subject: Single Use Plastic
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Shri Manickam Tagore B

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1148

TO BE ANSWERED ON 29.07.2024

## Single Use Plastic

## 1148.   SHRI MANICKAM TAGORE B:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether it is a fact that the Government is in favour of regulating and not eliminating Single Use Plastic;
- (b) whether it  is  also  true  that  the  Government  has  agreed  to  science  based  criteria  for identifying such plastics in the week long negotiations involving 192 countries held in Canada recently;
- (c) whether many other countries have also took the same stand that no outright stoppage of single use and avoidable plastics; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI KIRTI VARDHAN SINGH)

(a) Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, on 12th August 2021, prohibiting manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of the identified Single Use Plastic (SUP) items, which have low utility and high littering potential with effect from the 1st July, 2022. The notification also prohibits manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of plastic carry bags having thickness less than one hundred and twenty microns with effect from the 31st December, 2022. Non-woven plastic carry bags of less than 60 gram per sqm (GSM) are also prohibited from 30 th   September  2021.  Separately,  States/UTs  have  issued  notifications/orders  introducing regulations pertaining to complete or partial ban on plastic carry bags and/or identified singleuse plastic items, over and above the Plastic Waste Management Rules.

(b) to (d): Indian  delegation  participated  in  the  negotiations  at  fourth  session  of  the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC 4) held in Canada from 23 rd  April 2024 to 29 th April  2024.  INC  4  deliberated  and  negotiated  on  revised  draft  of  the  international  legally binding instrument to address plastic pollution. The revised draft will serve as the starting point of negotiations during INC 5.The INC 4 decided to establish ad hoc intersessional open-ended expert groups on the following topics:

(i)  to  develop  an  analysis  of  potential  sources,  and  means  that  could  be  mobilized,  for implementation of the objectives of the instrument, including options for the establishment of a financial mechanism, alignment of financial flows, and catalyzing finance, and

(ii) to identify and analyse criteria and non criteria based approaches regarding plastic products and chemicals of concern in plastic products, and product design focussing on recyclability and reusability of plastic products, considering their uses and applications.

The  two  expert  groups have  been  established  to  inform  and  help  advance  the  work  of  the Committee and their meetings and are only of a technical and expert nature. These are not negotiating nor decision-making meetings and are not part of an INC session.

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