Coimbatore : Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA) today appealed to Tamil Nadu Government not to ban polybags manufactured and supplied to garment manufacturing units.

In a letter to Chief Minister K Palanisamy, TEA president Raja M Shanmugham thanked him for banning ‘use and throwaway’ plastics from January 1, 2019.

“We wish to note that in the banned plastics items, across the board all the items, including the polybag used for packing of the garments for exports as well as in the domestic markets has also been included which would cause a big impact on the garment manufacturing units and the point of contention is that the garment industry would totally come to a standstill as it does not have any other alternative for packing garments. Moreover, there will also be a cascading effect on downstream activities of garment sector,” he said.

Polybag was used for packing of each and every garment and was recycled, he said, adding that more importantly, as there were no environmental issues in the usage of polybag, the environment conscious countries were also insisting on polybags.

The copies of the letter were also sent to State Textiles Minister O S Manian and Handloom and Textiles Principal Secretary P K Phanindra Reddy.