‘Plastics have to be used responsibly and judiciously and have to be recycled properly after use’, the Vice President of India Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said, in Chennai today. He was addressing the gathering at the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology (CIPET), an organization devoted to the development of plastics and allied industries.
The Vice President said that on one hand there is a quest for improving the quality of life through better material comforts and on the other hand, indiscriminate use of plastics threatens to seriously erode the sources of our sustenance. ‘There has to be a proper appreciation of the appropriate use of different plastics’, he said.
Naidu raised some serious concerns about the threats to the environment which the durability and longevity of plastic products posed. Lamenting that convenience items that are intended for single use are being continually discarded to the landfills; littering our landscapes, he unequivocally stated that plastics are to be used responsibly and recycled properly.
The Vice President congratulated CIPET and lauded the institution for training thousands of machinery operators, technicians and polymer engineers over the course of 50 years. He also expressed his appreciation for the skill development programmes held by the institute during the last five years which benefitted more than two lakh unemployed youth.
Naidu said that plastic-based products have become an integral and important part of the global economy today due to their low weight, durability and versatility. Highlighting the utility of plastics in several crucial areas, from aeronautics to medical science to construction to 3-D printing, he opined that plastics have transformed everyday life.
