Plastic-free hill stations: HC asks Aavin to find alternatives to milk sachets

Chennai: Madras high court has directed Aavin, the state-owned milk co-operative society, to come up with an alternative solution to distribute milk to consumers in the hill stations, particularly the Nilgiris, in material other than plastic sachets.A special bench of Justice N Sathish Kumar and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the order on Friday, after it was informed by amicus curiae and senior advocate T Mohan that over 60 lakh plastic sachets are generated every day in the Nilgiris alone through milk distributed by Aavin.
Appalled by the submission, the bench observed that this amounted to over 18 crore plastic sachets a year. Mohan further pointed out that Aavin gave an undertaking to the high court as early as 2013 to supply milk in glass bottles and even proceeded to float tenders for the same.Taking note of the submission, the bench directed Aavin to come up with an alternative solution to replace plastic sachets. As to the existing ban on selling drinking water in PET bottles, the court was informed that some of the vendors started selling drinking water in Tetra Pak."The ban imposed against PET bottles would apply in all force for poly-coated/plastic-coated Tetra Paks, paper packs, and multi-layered packs. As a matter of fact, the Tetra and other plastic-coated packs will be even more dangerous than the PET bottles," the bench said."We even directed the vendors of items other than water to find alternatives for such packs. Therefore, there is no question of using the same as far as water is concerned. It is made clear that the authorities shall enforce the ban with reference to such facts," the court added.In case of any violation, the authorities shall forthwith seize those packs and also seal the premises, as done in the cases of violators of the PET bottle ban, the judges said.