chennai the airports authority of india aai has intensified its campaign to eliminate singleuse plastic at the terminals of chennai airport as part of an initiative to introduce alternatives at all major airports the airport has banned singleuse plastic from january 1 the aai has declared 16 airports including madurai and trichy singleuse plastic free after the beat plastic campaign launched in june we have been able to cut down on singleuse plastic inside terminals at chennai airport plastic straws cups plates cutlery carry bags have been eliminated and alternative products have been introduced the ban introduced by the state government has also given a fillip to the initiative as passengers are showing interest to comply an aai official said plastic sheets continued to be used to wrap bags of international travellers the agency has told us that can be disposed of easily and it is universal across airports so we have exempted this service at the terminalthe airport is also gearing up to install a plastic shredder so that plastic bottles can be shredded for recycling some airlines continue to use small plastic bottles to supply drinking water inflight and the empty bottles are offloaded at the airport as waste this will be sent to a shredder there is also a move to use recycled plastic to relay roads on the cityside of the airportthe official said food and beverage shops have moved to paperbased alternative products for straws plates and cutlery we are in talks with retail shops to avoid plastic packaging and plastic bagsthis is a start we will ensure that all singleuse plastic is removed from the terminals in the coming months said another official even before the state government banned it many activities were conducted to spread awareness on november 4 aai conducted a plasticfree campaign during which gift hampers containing ecofriendly grocery bags biodegradable cutltery and clay diyas were given to first 1000 passengers to arrive on the day a totebag made of cloth was also given to the next 5000 passengers