The second amendment to the Environment Protection and Preservation Act of Maldives, has been ratified.

The amendment, ratified by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Wednesday, has been publicized in the government gazette.

With the amendment, a Clause 8.1, titled as a subheading as “Prohibition of import, manufacturing and marketing of Single-use plastics” is added to Chapter 8 of the Act. This clause mandates the importing, manufacturing and marketing of all goods classified on the list of Single-Use Plastics (SUPs) declared by the president to be prohibited.

The president has been vested 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, with this amendment.

The initial list of banned SUPs must also be declared by the president and publicized in the government gazette, before 1 January 2022 as mandated under the amendment.

In addition, the president is also mandated to ensure that the criteria for listing goods for the banned SUPs and a date for its prohibition.

The president is also mandated to publicize definitions of technical terminologies to coexist with the ratification and publication of the amendment.

In June, President Solih decreed changes to the import ban on several single-use plastics into the Maldives, under Section 7 of the Import-Export Act under which he has the power to prohibit the import of single-use plastic items by deadlines as part of a gradual phase-out efforts.

The president approved the plan to phase out single-use plastics in the Maldives by the year 2023, during November 2020. In December last year the People’s Majlis passed the 18th amendment to the Export-Import Act of the Maldives following which the president ratified the legislation the same month.

The amendment gave the president authority to compile and publish a list of goods prohibited to be imported to Maldives, the president may also add and remove goods from the list.

Parliament in mid-2019 passed a resolution to ban single-use plastics in Maldives from 2025 onward, after students from a number of schools collectively submitted a proposal that details the dangers of single-use plastic.

In December 2018, the president launched a campaign to eliminate single-use plastic. The government’s vision to phase out single-use plastics from the Maldives by the year 2023, was initially announced during Solih’s maiden trip to New York to attend the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, held in 2019.

It was introduced at the session as a government pledge, reiterated in the incumbent government’s 2019-2023 Strategic Action Plan (SAP) which envisages Maldives' waters to be cleared of plastic pollution by the year 2023.

Minimizing the use of single-use plastics was also one of Solih’s first 100-day-pledges. Since the Solih administration came into power, several government institutions alongside restaurants and cafés have stopped using plastic.