Plea to quash GO banning non-woven polypropylene bags

A division bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice Krishnan Ramasamy before whom a batch of pleas moved by polypropylene bag manufactures based in Tirupur including export of e-bags came up on Tuesday, issued notice to the State and posted the case for further hearing to Friday.

The petitioner on noting that non-woven bags are fabric-like bags made from spun-bonded polypropylene (PP) used to make plastic utilities and used in various applications like industrial packaging, bags, industrial lining and medical application, said such fabric has been classified as green and that it was textile material and not plastic.

The plea also noted that while the GO on June 25 banned the use and manufacture, storage, supply, sale or distribution of plastics from January 1, 2019, it had not banned non-woven PP bags. But subsequently, on December 8, a clarification was issued banning PP bags on the basis that they are not biodegradable.

Submitting that the inclusion was erroneous, the petitioner sought for a direction to quash the GO as far as non-woven PP bags are concerned.