President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has today ratified the second amendment bill to the Environment Protection and Preservation Act of Maldives.
The President's Office said that the amendment adds clause (8.1) with its subheading titled “Prohibition of import, manufacturing, and marketing of Single-use plastics” subsequent to chapter 8 of the Act.
According to the clause, all goods classified on the list of Single-Use Plastics (SUPs) declared by the President are prohibited from being imported, manufactured, and marketed in the Maldives.
The Amendment also vests the President with the authority to compile and publicize a list of goods classified as SUPs banned from import and to add or remove items from that list. The amendment stipulates that the initial list of banned SUPs must be declared by the President before 1, January 2022 and published on the government gazette.
Also, under the amendment, the President must ensure that the criteria for itemizing goods for the list of banned SUPs and a date for its prohibition as well as definitions of technical terminologies are publicized concurrent to the ratification and publication of the amendment.
Upon ratification, the amendment has now been published in the Government Gazette.
