Special Mechanism to Determine the Standards of Polythene Products

President Maithripala Sirisena had announced a number of measures including the ban on the import, manufacture and sale of lunch sheets and a ban on the use of polythene for decorations as an initiative to make Sri Lanka polythene-free and find a sustainable solution to solid waste management.

Polythene and allied products were banned effective from 1 st January 2017. However, having considered certain problem faced by the industry, it was not strictly implemented. After giving time space implementation came into operation. The Central Environment Authority (CEA) banned the use of polythene lunch sheets, regi foam boxes and shopping bags, with effect from 1st of September.

In order to support to provide technical support to manufacturers and importers of polythene, a special mechanism is to be introduced to identify polythene products matching industry standards. SLSI Director General W.N.N Satharasinghe said, that the mechanism will be implemented with regard to the identification method, which has been developed with regard to both biodegradable and composting polythene.