PM asks citizens to bid good bye to plastic

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday urged citizens to shun single-use plastics – the root cause of several ills threatening the environment.

“Can we make India free from single-use plastic?” Modi asked during his Independence Day address from the Red Fort.

He urged citizens to take the first step on October 2 towards making the country free from single-use plastics. He asked start-ups and entrepreneurs to devise solutions for recycling plastic waste.

Modi urged citizens to collect single-use plastics from homes, streets and drains with the help of municipalities, municipal corporations and gram panchayats.

He also asked shopkeepers to put up signboards exhorting customers not to use plastic bags. The Prime Minister urged businessmen to gift cloth bags with their company logo.

“If people go to market with cloth bags, that will be an advertisement for your company too,” he said.

According to the Central Pollution Control Board, India generates 25,940 tonnes of plastic per day.