Plastic ban: GHMC chief wants steel plates in weddings

Hyderabad: Commissioner of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, B. Janardhan Reddy, has directed deputy commissioners and the assistant medical officer of health (AMOH) to ensure that reusable plates and glasses are now used in all functions like weddings in places rented for the purpose in the city.

He has told each of the officials to ‘adopt’ function halls in their jurisdictions for a week to make sure of ‘zero waste’ weddings.

During an interaction with the owners of these halls, the GHMC chief asked them to use steel plates and glasses, cloth napkins and jute bags and to ensure there are composting units in the premises.

The commissioner has also appealed to citizens to minimise the use of plastic materials like flexies and decorations.

He wants businesses, RWAs, and NGOs to join hands with the GHMC to enforce the ban on plastic as a corporate social responsibility (CSR).

He asked them to donate steel crockery and cutlery to the 4,000 functional halls in GHMC limits.

Reusabale plates, glasses not hygienic

 Even though the GHMC considers banning plastic in city hotels and function halls a noble move, residents said that shifting to reusable plates and glasses would more dangerous.

They claimed that staff at most function halls and hotels do not wash plates and glasses well.

Apart from being unhygienic, it is also unpalatable to be served food on a plate that is greasy.

Mr S. Kiran Babu, an employee of a private firm said, “In most of the function halls and hotels, the kitchen and wash area are dirty. They use the same water for multiple utensils. It would be better if the GHMC looked into this angle as well.”

Mr M. Manoj Kumar, who has worked in a function hall in Musheerabad, said that quite often staff to in the washing section just pour water to wash multiple vessels. If single-use plastics are banned, it will become a herculean task to wash several untensils with the available water.

“If the corporation is sincere in their effort to ban plastic it should ban the manufacturing units first,” Mr Kumar said.

This newspaper reporter tried to contact Mayor Bonthu Rammohan and GHMC commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy to ask them about the concerns expressed by citizens, but they were unavailable. Additional commissioner Shruthi Ojha refused to comment.