KATHMANDU, MAY 20
The government has issued the Action Plan for Ban on Plastic Bags, 2022 with the objective of ensuring the right of citizens to live in a clean and healthy environment through prevention and control of the use of plastic bags below 40 microns throughout Nepal.
The action plan published by the Ministry of Forests and Environment on its website strives to put a complete ban on the production, storage, sale or distribution and use of plastic bags below 40 microns, and to raise awareness among the stakeholders and general public for the production and use of eco-friendly alternative bags other than made of plastics. It has set out four strategies - stopping the import of plastic bags or other plastic products thinner than 40 microns, banning the import of single use plastic bags below 40 microns, providing grant to industries on the purchase of new machine for the production of plastic bags above 40 microns and eco-friendly alternative bags and encouraging the general public to carry their own eco-friendly bags for shopping.
It also stipulates a 21-member central monitoring committee led by the chief secretary of the government for effective implementation of the action plan. The functions, duties and powers of the committee are to mobilise monitoring teams to conduct monitoring as to whether or not plastic bags above 40 microns have been produced, collected, sold or distributed, stored and used. "Similarly, the committee will provide suggestions to the Government of Nepal for necessary policy, legal and structural reforms, take stock of progress of provincial monitoring committee and local monitoring committee," the action plan states.
The monitoring committees of all three levels have been empowered to confiscate the plastic bags from the firms, companies or persons that produce, collect, sell or distribute or store plastic bags contrary to the thickness set forth in the action plan. The expected results from the implementation of this action plan are: reduced waste generation from plastic bags, reduced emission of pollutant gases into the atmosphere, reduction in environmental harm attributable to plastic bags, promotion of alternative bags through ban on production and use of plastic bags below 40 microns, increased awareness among the general public about the use of alternative bags, and protection of the people's right to live in a clean and healthy environment.
A version of this article appears in the print on May 21, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
