Chief Secretary V.P. Joy on Wednesday called for a collective effort based on lifestyle changes and awareness creation for effectively phasing out the production and use of single-use plastics that pose a grave threat to the environment.
While Kerala had launched efforts to check the use of single-use plastics, the State still had a long way to go, he said. The Chief Secretary was speaking after inaugurating a workshop organised jointly by the Directorate of Environment and Climate Change, GIZ Germany (German Agency for International Cooperation), and the Centre for Environment and Development (CED), as part of implementing a project on 'Circular Economy Solutions (CES) for preventing marine litter in ecosystems' in Kerala.
The specific management of plastics had received less attention compared to the management of other forms of waste, Mr. Joy said, calling for greater emphasis on recycling of multi-use plastics.
CED was the project management unit and GIZ India, the technical partner for the project, which broadly had three aims—strengthening the legal framework for reducing marine litter, providing technical expertise for reducing plastic wastes flowing into the sea, and aiding the realisation the CES, the CED said.
The problem of marine pollution was not confined to the coast, but it concerned the State as a whole, Sarada Muraleedharan, Additional Chief Secretary (Local Self Government Department), said. The problem consisted of wastes generated by coastal communities, those generated by visitors to the coast such as tourists, and waste generated in the upstream regions that made their way to the coast via rivers and other water bodies. The solution lied in reduction of wastes, behavioural changes, and vigilance against wastes entering water bodies, she said.
Rachna Arora, Team Leader CES Project, GIZ India, CED Executive Director Babu Ambat, M.G. Rajamanickam, Principal Director, LSGD, Suneel Pamidi, Director, Directorate of Environment and Climate Change and Pradeep Kumar, Chairman, State Pollution Control Board, spoke.
