Read Time: 05 minutes

Justice UU Lalit of the Supreme Court on Wednesday said that while using plastic three Rs- Reuse, Recycle and Reduce should be kept in mind. He, however, added, "If nothing of this is possible then Refuse the use of plastic, for which, we need to invent modalities, regimes and ideas".

"We need to have an approach where we can divide or segregate functions for which use of plastics can be allowed, otherwise, it should be banned completely when it comes to single-use plastics," Justice Lalit added.

Speaking at the Legal Services Programme on "Say No To Plastics, Save Environment and Issues Relating To Unorganised Labour" conducted by the District Legal Service AuthorityExecutive Chairman, National Legal Service Authority, Justice UU Lalit said,

"Wherever there is an alternative, wherever there can be paper bags, jute bags or steel plates or any other plates, discourage the use of plastic and discourage it to such an extent that the entire society finds itself standing uniformly together. We must take that stride and say that we refuse to have these kinds of plastic being swamped into the society."

Justice Lalit, memorizing his childhood days, said, "As a child, I used to see my mother get the milk delivered in glass bottles which were replaceable and today’s generation sees milk being delivered in plastic bags or containers."

Further, he said that among other works, NALSA is entrusted with work pertaining to environmental protection. He added, " Though it is not strictly legal aid but making people aware of the environment, of the adverse impact of certain issues on the environment is certainly part of legal education".

He said that there are 3 principles that are well known for the environmental protection:

First- 'Polluter pays' that is, whoever pollutes the environment, which pollutes the Earth, must pay for the remedial measures;

Second- Inter-generational Equity, which says that if we have received the mother Earth in a shape that is very conducive to the environment then it is our obligation, it is our duty and it is our responsibility that we handover the Earth to our next generation in the same fashion, in the same capacity, and in the same manner;

Third- Vellore Citizen’s Council, that to the extent possible given the circumstances, in environmental law, we must err to the safer side that given the options we can’t be adventurists, we will rather be conservative and err on the side which is the safer side.