News
Govt. to ban liquor in quarter bottles unless manufacturers get their act together
Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera on Tuesday vowed to ban liquor being sold in 180 ml (quarter) bottles considering the damage they inflicted on the environment.
Minister Amaraweera addressing officials of the Central Environmental Authority when he visited the CEA office in Battaramulla, after assuming duties, said the liquor companies sold liquor in 180 ml bottles made of glass or plastic. The consumers discarded them haphazardly after use. “The liquor companies do not collect them. They should be banned or the companies should collect those bottles for reuse or recycling. We can introduce a high tax under the polluter-pays-principle so that the companies will not get a profit by selling them.” Minister Amaraweera said that environment authorities and municipal cleaning agencies had pointed out that the need to introduce a new system to minimise environmental pollution caused by the discarded empty liquor bottles.
As per the available records over 300 million quarter liquor bottles had been purchased in 2019 from liquor shops, the minister said.
We should introduce a new system that encourages liquor consumers to return empty bottles instead of discarding them on the roadside.
As the first step under the new system, the liquor companies would be requested to provide a refund for every empty 180 ml alcohol bottle returned to any liquor outlet.
In addition to the quarter liquor bottles, the sachets containing shampoo, sauce and other products and small plastic bottles containing some products such as liquid blue used on white cloths too have become a threat to environment because the consumers discard them in a haphazard manner.
Secretary to the Ministry Dr. Anil Jasinghe was also present.
Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance No. 3 of 1897 is the principle law that regulates the prevention of the spread of communicable diseases and the implementation of quarantine measures.
However, at present, it has been observed that the risk of spreading communicable diseases across borders have significantly increased due to considerable increase in the
international and domestic movement of persons, goods, and services and frequent international travel and trade have led communicable diseases spread rapidly between countries.
Accordingly, although cabinet approval was granted in the 2016 to amend the Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance No. 3 of 1897, the relevant amendment bills have not been presented to Parliament.
Therefore, as per the proposal made by the Minister of Health and Mass Media, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the appointment of a Review Committee to study the amendment bill that has been prepared and propose suitable amendments to meet the current health challenges as well as challenges that may arise in the future, taking into consideration the experience obtained during the epidemic situations that have occurred in the past.
The Cabinet of Ministers granted approval to the proposal submitted by the President to make a donation of United States Dollars One million as humanitarian and economic relief to the government of Nepal
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