In 2018, Maharashtra State Government had announced a state-wide plastic ban and the same came in effect, starting June 23, 2019. Following this, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) took action against the hawkers, shopkeepers, and the others who were seen using plastic bags in public places and imposed penalty on them.
In order to collect plastic, BMC had appointed an 'Anti-Plastic Squad' which conducted raids in stores, malls, vegetable markets, along with other public places across Mumbai. Now, after one and a half year of the plastic ban, it has been learned that the anti-plastic squad of BMC has collected 81,793 kilos of plastic. During the tenure BMC has managed to collect penalty worth ₹4.41 crore for illegally stockpiling plastic.
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The seized 81,000 kgs of plastic consists of plastic bags along with one-time-use plastic items. In order to properly dispose them, the civic body had floated tenders to recycle them.
However, the tenders did not receive proper response which forced the municipal corporation to store the seized plastic in the BMC Godown.
Prior to the plastic ban, plastic bags of less than 50 microns were banned by BMC in Mumbai. But after June 23, a ban was imposed on plastic items such as spoons, plates, straws, plastic containers, along with plastic bags. If found guilty, the defaulter would have to pay ₹5,000 on first offence, ₹10,000 on second offence, and ₹25,000 on third offence. Through these penalties, BMC collected close to ₹4.5 crore.
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