Anti-plastic drive gaining momentum

Kozhikode: District Collector P.B. Salim said here on Tuesday that 1,216 schools in the district would be declaared plastic waste-free on December 20, as part of the Mass Action-plan for a Plastic-free Kozhikode (MAP).

“A variety of activities have been organised in the schools as part of properly sensitising the students about this pressing cause,” he said. These included special assemblies, literary contests with ‘plastic-waste' as a theme, contest in producing alternatives for plastic articles and selection of teacher/student coordinators to monitor the MAP activities. Select student/teacher coordinators had been given special training.

An exhibition of alternative products for plastic carry bags and other articles produced by various companies, NGOs and students would be organised at the Jubilee Hall in the city from December 22 to 24.

The Collector said the seven-day annual camp of the National Service Scheme (NSS) at the schools in different panchayats would have ‘plastic-free Kozhikode' as its theme. Government offices, health institutions and business/commercial organisations also would join the drive. All the government offices would be declared plastic-waste-free before December 31. “Health institutions in the district will be declared so by January 5,” the Collector said.

“All the parties have in principle agreed to be part of the initiative,” he said. A meeting of the CPI(M) district leadership was expected to declare support for the drive. They were also considering a proposal to avoid flex and plastic materials for party campaign activities, Dr. Salim said.

Several organisations, including Mata Amrithanandamayi Math and Total Sanitation Mission had sponsored plastic re-cycling units for the campaign. The district was expected to be declared plastic-waste-free in January-end, the Collector added.

Source: The Hindu, 8-12-2010

Anti-plastic campaign stepped up

Kozhikode: Kozhikode will be the first plastic waste-free district in India by January 26, Republic Day. The first phase of a massive programme to attain this goal ‘Mass Action for Plastic Waste free Kozhikode' (MAP) has been successful and has entered the second phase.

At a meeting with representatives of merchants, marriage hall owners, flex board manufacturers and plastic carry-bag manufacturers here on Thursday, Collector P.B. Salim said the first phase of the project, which included an awareness campaign, was successful.

As a result, schools and other educational institutions would be declared plastic waste-free by December 20.

The second stage involves avoiding disposable plastic products, including glasses, plates, publicity materials and carry-bags.

The process of sensitising the merchants and other target groups started on Thursday.

Similar programmes involving plastic manufacturers, government office heads, environmental and social activists, NSS, NCC, CSS, student police, student Red Cross and political parties will be held soon.

The third stage is to introduce alternative products and the fourth stage a ban on disposable plastic products. In the fifth stage, facilities for systematic collection and recycling of the remaining plastic products will be introduced, the Collector added.

Source: The Hindu, 26-11-2010

Cloth banners surge ahead in plastic-free polls

Thrissur: Cloth banners and paper posters which had lost out to modern publicity materials have bounced back as the favourite media of communication for political parties in Thrissur district in the coming local body elections.

Campaign materials made of paper and cloth are in high demand now with the State Election Commission imposing a ban on the use of plastic-made banners, posters and flyers. The commission has made it clear that the local body elections should be plastic-free.

Campaign managers of political parties were racking their brains to find alternative campaign materials. The District Collector, who supervises the electoral arrangements in the district, has asked the parties to say ‘no' to vinyl and flex boards for electioneering. Plastic was banned during the campaign for the last Lok Sabha elections also.

Firms making banners and posters, about a dozen in Thrissur city, have started working overtime to meet the huge demand.

Raju Edathala, who runs an adverting firm, says it is a tough task to produce sufficient number of cloth banners ahead of the civic body elections. “Making cloth banners consumes a lot of time,” says Mr. Raju. A skilled banner-maker needs at least an hour to make a standard-size cloth banner. The Thrissur Corporation alone has 55 divisions with a minimum of four candidates expected in each. “Most of the candidates this time will have to satisfy with paper posters,'' he says.

Moreover, the dearth of professional banner writers is another worry for the parties.Anil, an artist with an advertising firm in the city, says that most of the professional cloth banner makers had switched over to other businesses as venyl and flex boards almost replaced paper and cloth posters in recent times. The cost-effectiveness and clarity of photographs made flex boards popular. A cloth banner costs almost double that of a flex board. Refuting the charge that flex boards will create environmental pollution, Mr. Raju says that flex boards are reusable and biodegradable.

Meanwhile, flex board makers have urged the State Election Commission to review the decision to ban the material for polls. Instead of banning flex boards, the commission should impose restrictions on the number of flex boards being used by each candidate, they contend.Sand-mining puts bridges in peril

Source:The Hindu,23-9-2010

‘No-plastics' day in Guruvayur

Thrissur: The Guruvayur Municipality is observing a ‘no-plastics day' on Saturday and all vehicles entering the town will be checked for plastic bags.

The initiative is part of the civic body's efforts to free the town from the menace of plastics. An anti-plastics rally will also be taken out on the day.

Municipal chairperson Geetha Gopi said here on Thursday that all vehicles entering the town on Saturday would be checked for plastic bags. Cloth bags will be supplied to the passengers to replace the plastic bags.

The ‘plastics raid' would be conducted in collaboration with the police and the Motor Vehicles Department, in addition to volunteers of Scouts, Guides and NCC, Ms. Gopi told reporters.
The Guruvayur Municipality had banned the use of disposable plastic shopping bags effective from July 1.
“Guruvayur Municipality with an area of 7.48 square km has a population of 22,000. But nearly 3.5 crore people visit Guruvayur every year. This makes enforcement of the plastic ban difficult,” she said.

It is not an easy task to change the practice of using plastic bags as they had become an inevitable part of modern life, she said. So the municipality decided to take a reformative path than a regulatory one to implement the ban.

“We conducted sustained campaigns to sensitise people on the ill-effects of using non-degradable plastic products, before banning them.”

Kudumbasree units were entrusted with the responsibility of producing paper and cloth bags to replace the plastic bags.

“Now 20 days into the ban, people have slowly started getting into the mood of using carry bags made of paper and cloth. Almost 90 per cent of the traders in the town have stopped using plastic bags. Health officials are keeping a close vigil on the shops and business establishments.”
The Guruvayur Sreekrishna Temple stopped using plastic bags for supplying ‘prasadam' and instead started using cloth bags.

Billboards had been placed in offices, banks, bus stands, railway stations and national highways. Stickers were pasted on buses and other public vehicles.
“If the municipality's efforts become fruitful, the temple town will soon become a plastic-free zone,” she said.

Source:The Hindu 23 July 2010