Protest against Plastics — Act Now!

The Principal Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a Public Notice on the matter of use of various types of plastic products, with a view to phasing out many of them. Click here to see the order of the Tribunal.

Since many types of plastics create havoc in the environment, CI is urging readers to send their representations to the NGT as soon as possible, i.e., immediately! You can use the template provided below. Feel free to modify the text and the subject to suit your views.

Please note that all emails will be marked to Ms. Suman Jumani, Member, Researchers for Wildlife Conservation, who will compile all responses and submit to the NGT.

Click here to send the email (campaign disabled). 

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From:
Your name

To:
The Hon’ble Chairperson
National Green Tribunal, Faridkot House,
Copernicus Marg,
New Delhi – 110001

Date:

Sub: Response to the public notice issued by the National Green Tribunal regarding the ban of plastic bottles, PET bottles and multi-layered plastics for packaging of carbonated soft drinks and the phasing out of plastic polyethylene for all other non-essential items dated 31.03.2015. Hon’ble Chairman, I respectfully submit that I am in support of the ban and eventual phasing out of plastic bottles, PET bottles, multi-layered plastics and plastic polyethylene. The reasons I support this ban are as follows:

1. Despite plastics being non-biodegradable, most users consume plastic products as single-use items, after which they persist in landfills for centuries.
2. The chemical additives used in the manufacture of plastics have been found to have strong adverse impacts on people, wildlife and the environment.
3. When buried in landfills, plastics can leach toxic chemicals, which in turn contaminate surrounding soil, ground water and surface water bodies.
4. Open air burning of plastics (arising out of indiscriminate use of PET/Plastic bottle, multilayer plastic packaging etc.) releases several harmful pollutants in the atmosphere in such concentration as may be or tend to be injurious not only to human beings or other living creatures but also to plants or property or environment.
5. A huge volume of plastic debris ends up in the oceans, where it can be ingested by marine animals. Research indicates that there are about 46,000 pieces of plastic per sq.km of the world’s oceans, and this is responsible for killing a million seabirds and 1,00,000 marine mammals each year.
6. The ingestion of plastic fragments also poisons the animals due to the chemicals they contain. These then get transferred into the food web through the process of bioaccumulation. A recent report has documented over 180 species of animals ingesting plastic debris.
7. Studies have recorded the presence of plastic in even the most remote of environments, indicating the high level of mobility of plastics on sea surfaces.

Yours sincerely,

Your name
Your location
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Also attached for download is a slideshow of images that illustrates the impact of plastics on wildlife. All these images have appeared earlier on Conservation India. CI is sending a letter containing these images to the NGT.