Action against single-use plastic picks pace! BMC deploys Flying Squads in Mumbai & its suburbs

In a bid to curb single-use plastic usage, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has deployed Flying Squads across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). MPCB Chairman Siddhesh Ramdas Kadam emphasised stricter enforcement during a regional officers' meeting in MMR.

The teams, spanning Mumbai, its outskirts, Thane, Kalyan, Dombivali, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Navi Mumbai, Panvel municipalities, and Badlapur Municipal Council, will focus on these establishments. Initially, they will address stores and distributors of single-use plastics, eventually expanding to those falsely presenting them as compostable.

Municipal Corporation officials and local police authorities, are also part of the squads. With weekly reports to the MPCB chairman, the squads aim to enforce the 2018 Maharashtra Plastics and Thermocol Notification banning single-use plastics. Additionally, the Union Ministry of Forests and Environment has issued a similar ban through a 2021 notification.