Tamil Nadu hotels offer discounts for avoiding plastic bags and parcels

To encourage customers to do away with plastic bags for carrying food parcels, hotels in Tamil Nadu have announced discounts to those who bring their utensils.

To encourage customers to do away with plastic bags for carrying food parcels, hotels in Tamil Nadu have announced discounts to those who bring their utensils.

The move by the hospitality industry comes in the backdrop of the state government's decision to ban plastic items from January 1, 2019. "The plan is to make them bring utensils and vessels to carry the food.

A resolution was passed recently, offering five percent discount on the bill if customers bring the utensils," President of Chennai Hotels Association M Ravi said. "The practice of serving food in utensils brought by customers are being implemented across districts..," he said.

To a query whether the services offered by some food delivery firms would get affected, Ravi said talks were on with such service providers on how food could be delivered.

"Aluminium foils are used during packing instead of plastic bags; banana leaves also come in handy. The discount offer is to make customers bring their own containers," another official of the association from Vellore said.

In June, Chief Minister K Palaniswami had announced in the state Assembly that uses of plastic items, including non-biodegradable bags, would be banned from January 1, 2019, in the interest of the environment and to 'gift a plastic-free' state to the future generations.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)