Feb 19,2020

It is the need of the hour to curb consumption and production of plastic. Throughout the world countries, organisations and authorities are taking requisite steps to ensure this. In India Delhi’s IGI airport becomes the first single use plastic free airport.

 Highlights:

• GMR, the company which operates the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) recently declared a ‘single-use plastic free’ status to the IGI airport.
•  It was the first Indian airport to thus mark in 2019.
•  Theme for the Environment Day in 2018 was ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’. Following this the airport stepped up its action to achieve the above status.

About DIAL:

• Delhi International Airport Ltd. Delhi International Airport Limited owns and operates an airport. The Company offers baggage handling, cargo, flight information, airport facilities, transportation, and shopping services. Delhi International Airport serves customers in India
• Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), which runs India’s busiest airport, Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport, has been successfully certified as India’s plastic-free airport
• About The Confederation of Indian Industry- ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development.(CII-ITC CESD):
•  The Confederation of Indian Industry-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development (CII-ITC CESD) that supports the business community towards achieving sustainability has certified DIAL for its successful voluntary implementation of single-use plastic-free airport measures.
• .As the Delhi airport stepped up sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives and curbed its plastic waste generation; it was able to achieve the status of single use plastic free airport.

Significance:

• This step was taken in consonance with the Prime Minister’’s vision of abolishing all single-use plastic from India by2022.
• DIAL commits to work for it.
• Plastic items that are exempt are PET bottles, security tamper-evident bags, pre-packaged materials from manufacturers and compostable plastic bags.