New Delhi: The Jammu Airport situated 14 km (8.7 miles) from the international border between India and Pakistan, has initiated its battle against single-use plastic. The Jammu civil airport authorities have declared the airport premises free from the use of single-use plastic like plastic straws, spoons, bottles, carry bags and other hazardous plastic items. The eco-friendly move is in line with the Central government’s commitment to eliminate single-use plastic items from the country by 2022.
Giving out details of the swachh initiative, D K Gautam, Airport Director, Jammu Airport, says,
We declared the Civil Airport Jammu free from single-use plastic items this year on November 1. At airport, there are 7 F&B (Food and Beverages) outlets and 7 retail outlets and everyone has stopped using single-use plastic items. From plastic cutlery, glassware, crockery to plastic carry bags, each and every single-use plastic item have been replaced.
Cloth bag an eco-friendly alternative to regular plastic bags
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While the plastic straws and cups have been replaced by paper straws and paper cups, plastic spoons, forks, and plates have been replaced by 100 per cent biodegradable and compostable tableware from the company ‘Ecoware’. Not only is this, widely used plastic bags have been replaced by cloth bags, paper bags and traditional brown paper bags.
The compostable cutlery and tableware we have started to use, decomposes within 90 days without harming environment, unlike plastic. The green tableware products are made of plant biomass, which is basically the leftover crop, says Surinder Kumar, Manager, Lite Bite Food Pvt. Ltd., Civil Airport Jammu.
Eco-friendly alternatives to single-use plastic items being used by F&B outlets at Jammu airport
Though the eco-friendly products are tad costly as compared to plastic, but F&B outlet and retail outlet managers at Jammu airport are fine using it as it is good for mother earth and the generations to come.
To spread the message of single-use plastic free airport and encourage travellers to opt for eco-friendly alternatives, airport authority has put standees.
Standee at Jammu airport to spread the message of ‘single-use plastic free airport’
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I am happy to share that QCI (Quality Council of India) is doing a survey to check if we have actually stopped the use of single-use plastic. I am sure, we will get positive results and feedback from QCI in the days to come, says D K Gautam.
The Jammu airport isn’t the first one to stop the use of single-use plastic and fight against plastic menace. In November 2017, Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), installed waste recycling machines to prevent plastic from going to the landfills. Earlier in October, Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), announced to make the airport plastic-free by the end of 2019.
Also Read: Delhi Airport To Become Plastic-Free By The End Of 2019
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
