'Swarna Andhra Swachh Andhra' programme held in Visakhapatnam to raise awareness on single-use plastic

Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) [India], May 16 : Visakhapatnam District Collector Abhishikth Kishore on Saturday helped raise awareness regarding the harmful effects of single-use plastics during an event organised at Shivaji Park in Visakhapatnam under the 'Swarna Andhra Swachh Andhra' campaign.
Officials organised the awareness drive as part of the sanitation initiative aimed at promoting cleanliness and reducing plastic usage in the city.
Speaking to ANI, the District Collector said Visakhapatnam was striving to become one of the cleanest cities in the world with active public participation.

"Today, to celebrate the Swarnandhra Swachhandhra campaign, we are here in Shivaji Park in Visakhapatnam city. Visakhapatnam is one of the cleanest cities in the country, and we're on our journey to become one of the cleanest cities in the world," Kishore said.
He said the campaign focused on creating awareness among citizens and encouraging community participation in sanitation initiatives.
"Swarnandhra Swachhandhra campaign is all about imparting awareness to the citizens and making them part of this inclusive journey. But over the last 10 years, this has already been happening in the city of Visakhapatnam. We are one of the cleanest cities, only because of the citizens of Visakhapatnam. Using this campaign, we have been creating awareness among citizens on various sanitation initiatives and how to handle the cleanliness challenges that we have in the country. We have done 12 campaigns last year, and this year, this is the fifth campaign. This month, we are working on the plastic ban and reducing plastic usage," he said.
Highlighting concerns over environmental and health hazards caused by plastic waste, Kishore stressed the need to end the single-use of plastic.
"Single-use plastic is already completely banned in the country. The public is completely enhancing the efforts of the government in reducing this single-use plastic and eradicating it from society," he said.
He further said that while a complete ban on all forms of plastic may not be immediately feasible due to practical challenges, authorities were gradually moving in that direction.
"We are also on our way to completely ban all kinds of plastic. Just for the reasons of convenience, and as many sections would suffer if plastic is completely banned, we are not in a position today in this country to ban plastic completely. Otherwise, there is no other alternative for us but to ban plastic in all its possible ways," Kishore said.
"Slowly, we'll be heading in that direction, but for today, we have to completely eradicate use of single-use plastic, and the public should be completely aware of the negative effects of using plastic and how plastic is getting into the food cycle and affecting humankind," he added.
Swarna Andhra Swachh Andhra is an Andhra Pradesh government initiative aimed at transforming the state into a clean, prosperous and developed model state by 2047, with a focus on sustainable development, scientific waste management and public participation through regular cleanliness drives and awareness campaigns, particularly on the third Saturday of every month.