An International plastic bag free day was jointly organized by Ministry of Environment & Wild Life Resources (MoE&WL) and CCET on 3rd of July at MoE&WL. The event was organized in line with National Plastic Action plan which is being developed by the  Ministry of Environment & Wild Life Resources with the technical support of CCET and UN-IETC. All the secretaries of all Ministries and line agencies in Sri Lanka were invited to the above event.

Professor Ajith de Alwis from Moratuwa University, a guest speaker, highlighted the global situation on plastic waste management and importance of intelligent use of plastic.He also emphasized the issues created by micro and nano plastics, health and environmental risk due to excessive use of plastics, importance of minimizing generation of plastic waste and promotion of plastic waste recycling.

A mini exhibition and a sale on alternatives bags was held at the ground floor of the Ministry premises. The products included cloth bags, up-cycled saree bags,
paper bags and some environmental friendly products. Many attended the exhibition and bought alternative bags for plastic bags.

The event was quite successful where representatives from most of the government institutions were present at the program and they also had opportunity to buy alternative bags for plastic bags  made of cloths, paper, saree etc. The event helped in creating awareness among participants especially among the government institutions on the environmental and health risk caused due to excessive use and misuse of plastics and the program was also successful in introducing alternatives for plastic bags.