New regulations to control misuse of polythene in Sri Lanka

(August 16, 2009 - Lanka Polity) Sri Lanka government has made labeling compulsory for polythene products with effect from August 15.

All polythene product manufacturers should label their products with information such as license number of the Environment Protection Authority, registration number, name and address of the manufacturing company, thickness in microns, length and width of the product in millimeters and the product’s generic name.

Polythene production factories mushroomed in the island during the recent past. Before Sri Lanka imposed ban on less than 20 micron polythene in 2007, there were around less than 300 hundred factories. The number increased around ten fold after the ban as the polythene manufacturing became a cottage industry. According to the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA), there are only a very few eco-friendly bag producing factories in the country.

Central Environmental Authority and the Consumer Affairs Authority are monitoring the polythene manufacturing and sales.Last year they raided and prosecuted nearly 30 factory owners last year, for selling polythene below 20 microns.

Net polythene usage gone up after Sri Lanka's ban

(August 03, 2009 - Lanka Polity) A study in markets of Sri Lanka revealed that the laws introduced by the state since the beginning of 2007 to curtail the use of polythene had completely failed and it had caused rapid increase of net usage  this environmentally hazardous material. Although the manufacturing, sale and use of less than 20 micron thickness of polythene is illegal in Sri Lanka, they can be easily acquired from all the nooks and corners of the country including the IDP camps.

All the rhetoric of the then Minister of Environment Maithripala Sirisena to introduce alternates to 'shopping bags' led the country to nowhere and the packaging industry moved to use more polythene and plastic after the introduction of these regulations. Even the curd manufacturers that traditionally used earthen pots for packaging have begun to use plastic now.

Although there were around 300 polythene manufacturing factories by the time the laws were introduced, the number has escalated by tenfold within the two years of the implementation of laws, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources sources say.The Ministry lacks resources to monitor this expanded industry, they said.