Unit making thin bags sealed

A plastic products manufacturing factory has been sealed by the Pondicherry Pollution Control Committee (PPCC) on Saturday for manufacturing banned plastic carry bags that were below 50 microns thickness.

A team headed by PPCC Environmental Engineer N Ramesh raided the premises of Uttara Polyplast in Mettupalayam Industrial Estate and seized the carry bags and raw materials. The seized carry bags were found to be between 25 and 30 microns thickness.

The factory produced the carry bags in a clandestine manner manner. They did not display the company’s name board prominently outside the facility and the production was going on behind closed shutters, said Ramesh.

The PPCC would proceed against the factory under Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act and disconnect its power supply. The raid and seizure exposed the clandestine manufacture of banned plastic carry bags in Puducherry leaving the Plastic Products Manufacturing Association, which claimed that such units never existed in the Union Territory, red faced.

They had maintained that all banned carry bags being marketed in Puducherry came from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and Maharashtra. The raided factory was the main supplier of carry bags to shops in Puducherry, said Ramesh.

The UT Government had banned the usage and manufacture of plastic carry bags, disposable cups and plates that were less than 50 microns thick on December 9, 2012.

Since then, the government had been trying to enforce the ban through awareness measures and preventing the sale and use of the product.

Despite several seizures of the banned carry bags from stockists, the government was not able to succeed in preventing the flow of the product into the market.

During the last Assembly session, MLAs cutting across party lines sought the implementation of the ban, which they said was the major cause for clogged drains. Congress MLA C Jayakumar had also stated that clandestine units were producing the banned items unabated using the three-phase power connection provided by the government to the industry.