india

Updated: Sep 13, 2019 01:40 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday congratulated Fever FM for its campaign to cut down on single-use plastic and also urged shopkeepers to participate in the campaign.

“Such efforts will add valuable momentum to the Swachch Bharat Mission @FeverFMOfficial,” he tweeted on Thursday.

It was in his Independent Day speech that PM Modi had first asked people to avoid single- use plastic bags. “I request citizens to see if we can make India single-use plastic-free from October 2 (Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti). Schools, colleges, municipalities, urban bodies, gram panchayats can collect single-use plastic bags from their areas and on October 2, we can take up the task of phasing out single-use plastic bags,” he had said.

Then, he pitched for phasing out single-use plastics completely again at the 14th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification during the opening of the high-level segment recently.” The menace of plastic waste has rendered large tracts of land unproductive and unfit for use,” he said.

“Going forward, India would be happy to propose initiatives for greater south-south cooperation in addressing issues of climate change, biodiversity and land degradation,” he added.

Meanwhile, environment minister Prakash Javadekar has said that it’s a voluntary effort. There will be no ban on single-use plastic but the campaign will urge for a phase-out. Around 15, 000 tonnes of plastic waste is generated in India every day, of which only 9,000 tonnes is collected and recycled.

(Disclaimer: Fever FM is run by HT Media Limited, which publishes Hindustan Times)