Ban on Single-Use Plastics

September 07, 2023

On June 5, 2018, to mark World Environment Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India would phase out single-use plastics by 2022. On August 15, 2019, in his Independence Day address to the nation, Modi reiterated his commitment and urged the citizens to “free the country from single-use plastics”. In the same year, on October 2, as the country observed the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, he called for an “andolan” (mass movement) to eradicate singleuse plastics. Two years later, in 2021, the Indian government prohibited the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of 19 identified single-use plastic items, said to have low utility but high littering potential.