Goa’s new action plan for waste management

The Goa state government has come with a new action plan to put the non-biodegradable waste away. ULBs and Village Panchayats have been directed to include the plastic ban in their by-laws and impose fines on defaulters, says a Times of India report.

The action plan also instructs the authorities to have a system of collecting waste from door-to-door by March 31 and prepare the material recovery facilities by 2021. In the last couple of years, many civic bodies had banned single-use plastics of less than 50 microns but implementation was lacking.

The municipal bodies are also asked to send a progress report monthly to the department of environment and climate change and also design by-laws for effective plastic waste management. The plan stated that support will be provided for upscaling/recycling of single-use plastic items and promoting small scale or micro-enterprise. It also urged the Government to dissuade the use of plastic bottles, trays, plastic flowers, and other such items at it various departments.

Picture Credit: Picture for representational purpose only (Picture Credit: Muntaka Chasant, Plastic Pollution in Ghana, CC BY-SA 4.0)