With the plastic ban being enforced on Saturday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has organised a three-day exhibition from Friday to Sunday (June 22-24) to showcase alternatives to banned plastic. The exhibition would be held at National Sports Club of India (NSCI) at Worli.The exhibition will be open from 10 am to 7 pm. It will include 61 stalls with 50 stalls by small savings groups providing alternatives to plastic," said Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner (solid waste management).

The exhibition is set to be inaugurated by environment minister Ramdas Kadam, mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar, film stars Ajay Devgn and Kajol, Yuva Sena chief Aditya Thackeray and Amruta Fadnavis.According to  the Maharashtra Plastic and Thermocol Products  Notification, 2018, issued on March 23, the state government has banned the manufacture, usage, storage, distribution, wholesale or retail sale, import and transportation of all kinds of plastic bags (with or without handle), single use disposable items made of plastic and thermocol dish, cups, plates, glasses, bowls, forks, spoons, straw, containers, non-woven polypropylene bags, pouches to store liquid, plastic to wrap or store products and packaging of food items and small PET and PETE bottles having capacity of less than half litre, across the state."With the ban of plastic carry bags, cutlery and thermocol, automotive plastic parts manufacturers we have been  receiving a lot of queries from people seeking alternatives for these items. The exhibition has been organised to create public awareness about the plastic ban and through this we will try to answer their queries," said a senior civic official.Alternative products to plastic such as cloth and paper bags, straw, brush, packaging items made up of biodegradable material, etc. would be displayed at the exhibition he added.

The Maharashtra government is likely to ban plastic packaging of e-commerce products as well as plastic bottles with a capacity of less than 200 millilitres. Besides, the government is likely to allow the retail packaging of plastic bags above 50 microns and is contemplating bringing multilayered packaging and tetra packaging under the ambit of the plastic ban.The decisions were taken in a meeting held by Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam on Saturday, an official said. "All e-commerce products will be brought under the ambit of the ban. They will be given three months time to opt for the environment friendly packaging," the environment department China Automotive Interior Injection Plastic Part Molding Manufacturers official said.The official further said it is also likely to ban plastic bottles below 200 ml capacity for water and beverages.Under the extended producers responsibility (EPR), multilayered packaging and tetra packaging firms would be given three months time to set up a mechanism for collecting and recycling plastic used for packaging, he added.While multilayered packaging is used for chips, snacks and biscuits, tetra packaging is used for various beverages.The official added that it has also been decided to allow retail packaging using plastic with a thickness of above 50 microns.The weight of such plastic bags should be minimum two grams.The state-wide ban on plastic items came into effect from June 23.Later, the government relaxed it by allowing small retailers to use plastic bags for packaging purposes for the next three months.