Nine more single use plastic items banned

By Ifham Nizam

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) has banned nine more single-use plastic items.

CEA Director General P. B. Hemantha Jayasinghe yesterday said the single-use plastic items had been banned by the Gazette Extraordinary No. 2341/30 of 19 July 2023 with effect from 01 October 2023.

Jayasinghe said those items included single-use drinking straws and stirrers; single-use plates, cups, spoons, forks, and knives; plastic garlands; and plastic string hopper trays that have been banned. Thus, manufacturing, importation for local use, sale, offering for sale, displaying for sale, offering free of charge, or exhibiting within the country will be banned from 01 October 2023, and in case of any violation of this ban, legal action will be taken in terms of the provisions of the National Environmental Act.