Plastic Ban Sikkim bans packaged mineral water bottles from New Year’s Day
Gangtok/NITN: Travellers planning to visit the Himlayan state of Sikkim in 2022 or thereafter must keep a key regulation in mind.
Starting January 1, 2022, packaged mineral water bottles have been banned across the state, according to media reports.
Therefore, travellers must not travel to the state with packaged mineral water bottles in their possession.
Reports quoted the state’s chief minister, PS Tamang, as saying that the state is ‘blessed with natural resources that provide fresh and good quality drinking water’.
He made the announcement during an event on Gandhi Jayanti on October 2.
It is one of the many steps that the state has been adopting to protect its ecology and environment.
Sikkim is a 100 percent organic state and all its farmlands have been certified ‘organic’.
Prior to this state-wide ban, parts of Sikkim were already on the path to ban the use of packaged mineral water.
In 2020, the popular tourist town located in north Sikkim, Lachen, had completely banned drinking water bottles.
Entrepreneurs offered bamboo bottles as an alternative to the plastic bottles.
Lachen, arguably the first town to completely ban packaged drinking water bottles , is introducing bamboo bottles as an alternative in Sikkim. A nature based solution to single use plastic is wonderfully attractive and beautiful. #Bamboo #plasticfree #ClimateChange #GoGreen pic.twitter.com/cuNuBovum1
— Ramesh Pandey (@rameshpandeyifs) March 2, 2020
