Chief Electoral Officer of Punjab, S Karuna Raju on Saturday asked all the political parties to not utilize single-use plastic material for electioneering and encouraged them to use eco-friendly material during the Lok Sabha Polls.
The CEO said that Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had approached the Commission with the request for directing political parties to print out all concerned in eco-friendly material.
"A lot of the campaigning material including posters, cut-outs, hoardings, banners, political advertisements and others are made of plastic and after the elections, these electioneering material becomes waste”, he said and added that single-use plastic waste generated during the campaign causes choking of drainage, ingestion by stray animals, land and water pollution thereby causing adverse impact on human health and environment.
The CEO said that some of these plastics are Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) based, which produces emissions on burning.
Raju said the campaign material in the form of posters, cut-outs, hoardings, banners and others which were made of plastic contain Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC), which produces harmful emissions on burning. He said a number of alternates like compostable bags, natural fabrics, recycled paper and other material can be used during the campaign which has a lesser environmental impact.