India banned some single-use or disposable plastic products Friday as part of a federal plan to phase out the ubiquitous material in the nation of nearly 1.4 billion people. For the first stage, it has identified 19 plastic items that aren't very useful but have a high potential to become litter and makes it illegal to produce, import, stock, distribute, or sell them, the AP reports. These items range from plastic cups and straws to ice cream sticks. Some disposable plastic bags will also be phased out and replaced with thicker ones.
Thousands of other plastic products—like bags of chips or bottles for water or soda—aren't covered by the ban. But the federal government has set targets for manufacturers to be responsible for recycling or disposing of them after their use. Plastic manufacturers had appealed to the government to delay the ban, citing inflation and potential job losses. But India's federal environment minister Bhupender Yadav said at a press briefing in New Delhi that the ban had been in the pipeline for a year. "Now that time is up," he said.
This isn't the first time that India has considered a plastic ban. But previous iterations have focused on specific regions, resulting in varying degrees of success. A nationwide ban that includes not just the use of plastic, but also its production or importation is a "definite boost," says Satyarupa Shekhar, the Asia-Pacific coordinator of the advocacy group Break Free from Plastic. India said that the banned items were identified while keeping in mind the availability of alternatives: bamboo spoons, plantain trays, wooden ice-cream sticks. In the days leading up to the ban, however, many vendors said they were confused about the new rules. (Some elephants in India have become plastic polluters.)
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