No single-use plastic

There is no case for extending the deadline

The long-pending ban on single-use plastic seems set to come into effect on July 1. But intense lobbying is still underway by some stakeholders to get the deadline extended further on the clichéd, but hard to justify, plea of non-availability of their cost-effective alternatives. The most vocal among these lobbyists are the producers of beverages where straws are integral to their products. They are seeking time, a year or six months, to organise the supplies of straws made of biodegradable material to replace the plastic ones. Environmentalists, expectedly, discount this plea, arguing that ample time has been given to them