Page 40 - Plastics News August 2020

Kurukshetra administration to tighten noose on violators of Plastic ban

be sealed during the drive, for which directions have
been issued to Thanesar Municipal Council and other
civic bodies in the district. The officials have been told to
impose a complete ban on the sale and use of
polythene.” Recently, a drive was launched against the
usage of polythene in the district under which the
Thanesar Municipal Council, Shahabad Municipal
Committee, Pehowa Municipal Committee, Ladwa
Municipal Committee and Ismailabad Municipal
Committee had issued 566 challans and imposed a fine of
Rs 71,500. “Besides the municipal officials, 22 officers in
the district have been assigned the duty to tighten the
noose against the polythene sellers, and the ADC has
been appointed as the nodal officer for the drive. All the
Selling polythene may now cost sealing of shop in
Kurukshetra. As per the information, the administration SDMs have been told to prepare the lists of such
has planned to launch a drive after Rakhi in the district. shopkeepers and seal their shops if they fail to comply
DC Dhirendra Khadgata said, “Regular challans were with the orders,” said the DC. Despite Haryana being
among the first states to announce a ban on manufacture
being issued for selling and using polythene but now we
have decided to go strict against the bulk sellers and seal and use of plastic bags in 2011, plastics bags were
their shops. There are several alternatives available, making its way in the state.
they must stop selling polythene bags else the shops will

No evidence that caterpillars digest PE

Three years after researchers at Cambridge University in Fraunhofer's team of
the UK claimed that caterpillars could solve the world's researchers have
plastics waste issue by eating it, Fraunhofer LBF has f o u n d t h a t
conducted trials and found no evidence that the caterpillars eat holes
caterpillars digest polyethylene. A team from the into PE foil, take in
Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System small amounts of it
Reliability decided to investigate further the claims that and at the same time
larvae of the wax moth Galleria melonella eats and lose considerable
digests PE. Within the framework of a research project body mass. Once
on the chemical imaging analysis of plastics digestion in there are holes, the
caterpillars (RauPE), the team used high-resolution caterpillars stop
Raman microscopy and dedicated software to follow the f u r t h e r m a t e r i a l
path of the plastics through the caterpillar. Previous intake. The analytical
studies claimed that the larvae convert PE at a measurement data does not provide any evidence that
remarkable rate: 100,000 caterpillars eat about 5.2kg of the caterpillars digest the polyethylene, explained the
PE within a week. This, it was said, could open up research team. “The fact that caterpillars biodegrade
promising possibilities for the disposal and elimination PE remains a visionary goal for the time being, and
of plastics waste, and raised questions as to whether the intensive interdisciplinary efforts are essential to
caterpillar's ability could be harnessed technologically. achieve it,” said Dr Bastian Barton, who supervised the
It was also important to clarify whether the caterpillar research project...
actually digests the PE or merely crushes and excretes it.

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August 2020 38 Plastics News