City Garden To Enforce Complete Ban On Plastic Bottles Soon
Vadodara: Visitors to Sayajibaug may soon have to leave their plastic water bottles at home, as the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) has decided to make the city’s largest and one of its most popular public gardens completely plastic-free.The civic body plans to enforce a complete ban on plastic water bottles in the garden within the next few weeks. Municipal Commissioner Arun Mahesh Babu said the move aims to prevent plastic pollution and protect the environment. “The decision has been taken to ensure that the park remains free of plastic pollution,” he said.Before enforcing the ban, VMC will install additional water coolers across Sayajibaug to ensure visitors have access to drinking water. Officials said visitors will then be encouraged to carry reusable bottles and refill them inside the garden.“Most visitors bring drinking water in plastic bottles. We first need to provide adequate drinking water in the garden before banning plastic bottles”, a VMC official said. The cafe inside the garden will also not be permitted to sell plastic water bottles once the ban comes into effect.The VMC plans to gradually extend the ban on plastic items and bottles to other major gardens across the city after successfully implementing it at Sayajibaug.Officials said plastic bottle caps and other small plastic waste have been a major source of soil pollution in the garden. With thousands of visitors entering Sayajibaug on a daily basis, discarded plastic items often end up scattered across the premises. Bottle caps, in particular, become embedded in the soil and can remain there for years.The civic body had already launched a crackdown on plastic pollution at Sayajibaug two months ago by banning single-use plastic bags and penalising visitors for littering.According to VMC officials, the measures have already led to a reduction in plastic pollution in the garden. The proposed plastic bottle ban is expected to further strengthen efforts to keep its public spaces clean and environmentally friendly.
