Kohima Municipal Council imposes blanket ban on single-use plastic items

INR 59,500 fine collected in few days

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Aug. 8 (EMN): While Nagaland government had banned single-use plastic (SUP) items in the state with effect from July 1, Kohima Municipal Council (KMC) has gone a step further by imposing a blanket ban on all SUPS, including those within the level of microns or grams per square metre (GSM) permitted by the Central and state governments.

The list of banned single-use plastic items by the KMC include disposable plastic and polystyrene (thermocol) plates, trays, containers, cups, bowls and cutlery; earbuds with plastic sticks, ice cream plastic sticks, plastic sticks for candies, plastic balloon holders, polystyrene-made (thermocol) decorations, plastic carry bags, thin plastic sheets, transparent packaging and plastic film packaging used for food items, sweet boxes, invitation cards and cigarette packets.

‘KMC is not doing it for itself but is doing it for everyone. It is just the mindset which we need to change, if we are to see any change,’ KMC Administrator T Lanusenla Longkumer, said in an interaction with Eastern Mirror. She also expressed hope that people will cooperate with the ban.

Defaulters penalised

The KMC has been conducting spot checks for the past week and had collected a total fine of INR 59,500 among those violating government orders. The exercise will continue simultaneously with other inspections in the days to come. The collected amount, she Longkumer, would be deposited and used for office purposes.

Meanwhile, seized plastics are damaged on the spot and taken to the landfill at Meriema for now. Initial talks are going on with Dalmia Cement Company to hand over the plastics, she added. 

“Unless another COVID pandemic comes, we should be able to do something this time (out of the single-use plastic ban imposition),” she said, when asked if the exercise would succeed.

The defaulters are penalised INR 1000 for first offence, INR 2000 for second offence and third offence would attract cancellation of trade license. Citizens (whose identity will be kept confidential) can also inform the authority concerned on use of SUPs by business establishments, it was informed.

Meanwhile, the Kohima District Task Force (DTF) has implemented a fixed penalty for defaulters not complying with the government’s order on SUP items in both rural and urban areas of the district. It will penalise the business establishments/defaulters found selling/using the banned SUP items with INR 1000 for the first offence, INR 5000 for second offence and INR 10,000 with cancellation of license for the third offence.

Plastic menace

“People have become so used to plastics, otherwise alternatives just come in naturally and are readily available,” said the official.

“Back in those days, whenever social work or cleanliness drives were conducted, there was hardly any plastic, besides sweet covers. But now, plastics took over, and sadly, rivers became the dumping ground, even after repeated awareness/reminders not to throw wastes into the river,” she lamented.

“It is not that we are not aware. We know everything, but it is the will to change that is lacking among citizens. Our mentality and the advancement we are going at, are not matching,” she observed.

In Kohima alone, approximately 90 TPD (tons per day) of non-segregated waste is being generated with no functional scientific waste treatment plant, as the only solid waste management facility at Lerie in Kohima “stopped functioning” some years ago.

“We get approximately 90% tonnes of non-segregated waste in a day from places including Jotsoma, Kohima and from private entities. The wet waste amounts to around 30 to 40% and the remaining is dry waste, which is the main issue,” she said.

The official added that there is no recycling unit for plastics in the state, except for the Material Recovery Facility at Chümoukedima that does shredding and sends it for recycling outside the state.

‘People are aware but don’t want to do’

Speaking further about solid waste management, she said that due to the non-segregation of waste by the citizens, the landfill at Solid Waste Management Facility, Lerie, which was supposed to be filled in five to six years, got filled in two years. The waste had to be dug up and transferred to the Meriema waste management facility.

Funded by the Asian Development Bank, the scientific Solid Waste Management Facility at Lerie became functional in 2016 and has been running for two years (as per the contract) but it has also stopped following the expiry of duration a few years ago.

In this regard, the KMC had last week extended an invitation (through advertisement) to interested parties for outsourcing of Kohima solid waste management.

‘However, even if the third party comes, till we learn how to segregate our waste, it won’t be possible to run it,’ Longkumer pointed out. 

‘People are aware of the waste segregation as awareness programmes have been going on for the last five to six years but they don’t want to do—that willingness is not there among citizens. As a result, both wet and dry wastes are getting dumped at the waste management unit in Meriema, and now the area is sinking,’ she lamented.

She informed that World Vision India, through the Japanese Embassy, is seeking an application for Grant Assistance for Grassroots Projects (GGP) to receive some bins in 50 locations and five water harvesters for Kohima. However, the talk is still in the initial stages.