Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that from August 1, Biodegradable Lunch Sheets will be available in all shops in the country and steps will be taken to make the use of such lunch sheets compulsory.
He was addressing a media briefing at the Ministry of Environment yesterday (14).
Accordingly, non-perishable lunch sheets made of polythene will be banned from the first of next month and their production and distribution will also be banned. Also, steps will be taken to give a grace period of one month for the sale of lunch sheets which are currently in production, during which the production and distribution of lunch sheets made of polythene will be prohibited.
The Central Environmental Authority and the Consumer Affairs Authority will conduct raids to find out whether they are still being produced. The Minister said that the law will be strictly enforced against anyone who manufactures and distributes them in defiance of orders.
He also said that the relevant Cabinet Memorandum was signed yesterday (14) to submit to the Cabinet a list of bans on eight other types of polythene and plastic products.
The list of banned products are single use straws and stirrers, spoons, forks, yogurt spoons and knives made of single plastic, volumes less than 400X 500 Sili Sili Bags (Shopping Bags),plastic string hopper trays, polythene packed incense sticks and wicks, plastic garlands, plastic cups and lunch sheets.
According to the latest information released by the Central Environmental Authority, the use of daily lunch sheets in the country has increased. Accordingly, the number of lunch sheets used in our country per day has increased to 12-15 million. Not even 1 per cent of this is recycled and all lunch sheets purchased by the public are released into the environment.
There are currently alternatives to this. However, biochemical lunch sheets are currently manufactured by 10 factories. However, the Minister said that if the factories tried to mislead the public and produce non-perishable lunch sheets, their production licenses would be banned.
The Minister also said that approval for the production of biodegradable lunch sheets will be given only to institutions registered under the Central Environmental Authority.