Several malls, hotels in Delhi declared 'single-use plastic free'

New Delhi, July 03: Several plush malls and hotels in south Delhi were on Saturday declared "single-use plastic free" as part of the area's civic body's efforts to curb use of such items, officials said.

These include City mall, DLF Avenue, MGF, Ambience, ITC Sheraton, and Hyatt - in Saket; and DLF Promenade, the Grand hotel and DLF Emporio - in Vasant Kunj; and Eros hotel in Nehru Place, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) said in a statement.

In a meeting on Friday, the SDMC decided to declare 20 markets in its jurisdiction as "single use plastic free". On the occasion of International Plastic Bag Free Day on Saturday, the SDMC organised various programmes and intensive drives against single-use plastic in all its four municipal zones.

Various RWAs of south zone handed over nearly 1,000 kg plastic waste to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for recycling, it said. Awareness programmes and campaigns were also carried out in all four zones in the presence of local area councillors and senior SDMC officials, officials said, adding various markets were also declared as "single-use plastic free zones".

In the west zone, 'Plugging Run' was organised in Vikaspuri market where deputy commissioner and area councillor Rahul Singh participated in a drive to collect plastic waste lying unattended on roads, and also distributed cloth bags to people, the SDMC said.

To make the west zone 'single-use plastic free', memoranda were also signed with several malls and hotels. A pledge was also taken by shopkeepers and traders to not use plastic bags.

A memorandum was signed with Unity mall and Picadilly in Janapuri; Pacific mall in Tagore garden; SK Premium and Tulip in Hari Nagar; and R-cube monad mall in Raja Garden, officials said. An intensive drive under the campaign 'Plan The Ban' was carried out in Najafgarh zone against the use of plastic bags.

Under the campaign, Dwarka Sector 12 market, Nasirpur Sabji Mandi, Najafgarh phirni, Najafgarh Tuda Mandi, Bagdola and Ramphal Chowk among other areas were intensively covered. People were encouraged to use jute or plastic bags instead of plastic.

A workshop on the harmful effects of plastic bags was organised in the central zone in which the deputy commissioner, office-bearers of several RWAs and market associations took part. Zonal office of Central Zone was also declared 'single-use plastic free', the civic body said.

Massive awareness drive against plastic bags was organised in all wards of the zone, and 1,000 cloth bags were also distributed to people in Okhla Mandi, Sewa Nagar and Harkesh Nagar, it added.