The Indian Express
Pune, Sep 15: All schools, colleges and institutions of higher education in India will soon have to start doing away with single-use plastic items.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) have both issued circulars urging educational institutions to plan schemes to introduce alternatives for single-use plastics and organise special programmes for creating awareness as part of the ‘Swachhta hi Seva’ programme.
This comes in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call against the use of single-use plastic, and the Centre’s plans to ban the use of plastic items such as carry bags, cutlery, milk pouches, decoration items, packaging materials and bottles, among others.
The educational institutions will also organise various events till October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, which will be observed as Swachh Bharat Diwas.
In October, the collected material will be sent for recycling and appropriate disposal by these institutions.