PUNE: The Maharashtra Plastic Manufacturers’ Association has said around 56,000 people will be jobless and pegged the indirect unemployment at around 20 lakh across the state in the wake of the government’s ban on plastic.
The number of people employed in plastic manufacturing units in districts such as Pune, Jalgaon, Aurangabad and Jalna is huge, Maharashtra Plastic Manufacturers’ Association president Ravi Jashnani said on Tuesday.
“There are close to 2,500 industries in the state that make plastic bags, while another 8,000 store and sell those. The number of those indirectly employed in the plastic industry is around 25 lakh,” he said.
In Pune alone, areas such as Chakan, Kondhwa, Shindewadi, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Rajgurunagar have a large number of plastic manufacturing units, Jashnani said, adding that the count does not include the rag pickers and recyclers who depend on collection and recycling for their livelihood.
The main reason why plastic has become such a problem is, Jashnani said, because there is no government intervention in having a suitable mechanism for plastic segregation and disposal.
“Bins overflow with wastes of various kinds — dry and wet. In cities like Indore, there are separate disposal facilities for plastic, glass, household and other wastes. This is absent in Maharashtra. How are the collectors supposed to separate plastic from other waste at the dumping site? It is because of this that plastic eventually ends up in rivers,” he said.
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Source : timesofindia
