According to an official notice issued by the Indian Ministry of Shipping to all ships of a major Indian shipping company, India became the first country in the world to ban the use of all disposable plastic products on all vessels stay in India or through Indian waters.
Applicability of ban
1) All Ships which are deemed to be Indian Ships under Merchant Shipping Act, 1958.
2) Foreign ships in any port or place in India.
Items to be prohibited
From 01st Jan. 2020 onwards, all Indian ships and Foreign ships in and port or place in India, followed (disposable) plastic items should be prohibited onboard,
1) Plastic bags, plastic trays, plastic containers, food packaging films;
2) Plastic milk bottles, plastic freezer bags, plastic shampoo bottles, plastic ice cream boxes;
3) Plastic bottles for water and other beverages, plastic containers for cleaning liquids, plastic
cookie trays;
4) Protective packaging for hot drink cups, insulated food packaging, and fragile items;
5) Microwave oven plastic tray, ice bucket, potato chip bag, bottle cap.
Followings, should not be used since 16th Oct. 2019,
1) Disposable plastic tableware, plates and cups;
2) Water bottles or beverage bottles up to 10 liters.
3) Disposable garbage bags or shopping bags.
4) A detergent dispensing container of less than 10 liters.
PSC in India
The administration surveyors while carrying out Port State Inspection of foreign flag vessels to ensure that single use plastic are not in use and are kept locked in a store during their stay in Indian ports and on their passage through the territorial waters of India. A foreign ships intending to enter an Indian port (as defined in Article 11 of UNCLOS), is required to make a log entry identifying the ‘ Single use plastic items’ on board the ship and stating the time, Latitude and Longitude ‘when’ along with the location of the store where these items are stored prior entering Indian territorial waters. Further NO single use plastic items to be discharged to port reception facility at an Indian port; same to be verified during Port Sate Inspection.
Information for reference
In September of 2019, a foreign research report showed that an uninhabited island in the South Atlantic was encountering a disaster caused by large amount of plastic waste left by merchant ships. The authors who published that report in the Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences visited that isolated island in 1984, 2009, and 2018, after collected thousands pieces of rubbish, it was concluded that most of the plastic bottles were from merchant ships on a small island in the South Atlantic called Inaccessible island Inaksethi.
Let’s work together, to implement our Garbage Management Plan onboard, enhance the environmental protection measures, and reserve a green ocean for our Children.
