COIMBATORE: After almost six months, the Coimbatore Corporation again started cracking the whip on people selling plastic bags below 50 microns.

The civic body seized five tonne of banned plastic bags from wholesale
shops in Thomas Street and Raja Street on Tuesday. The last time, the
civic body conducted a raid was in 2016 when 500kg of banned plastic
bags were seized from a shop at Sundarapuram in the south zone of the
civic body.

According to the assistant city health officer Santhosh Kumar,
officials received an information on Monday morning that banned plastic
bags were being brought from Erode
to godowns in Thomas Street and Raja Street. The sanitary workers in
the area followed the trucks and kept the officials informed about their
movement.

At around 10.30am, two trucks were stopped and five tonne of plastic was seized.

Two tonne of banned plastic bags were seized when they were being
unloaded from a truck. Sanitary officers and inspectors were also
present during the raid.

Santhosh Kumar said that according to the new solid waste management
rules, 2016, plastics less than 50 microns are banned and should not be
used.

Nearly eight small scale plastic bag manufacturers are functioning in
Velandipalayam area in the city. Civic body officials visited them last
week and conducted inspections.

“We found that all the manufacturers in the city are following rules.
These banned plastics are coming into the city from the nearby districts
such as Erode and Salem and some also from Kerala,” said a sanitary inspector.