The Ministry of Environment has taken steps to ban the production of four types of plastic and polythene related products for local use from tomorrow. Accordingly, disposable polythene and plastic, PET bottles (PolyEthylene Terepthalate), lunch sheets less than 20 microns, sachets (non-food and non-pharmaceutical), cotton buds (non-medical) and inflatable plastic Toys would be banned. Addressing a media briefing held at the Ministry of Environment yesterday (29), Minister of Environment Mahinda Amaraweera stated that considering the requests made by several companies, the relevant products will be given a period of three months to be marketed and no restrictions have been imposed on the export of those products. The Minister said that these companies are entirely local companies and even though some industrialists were aware that the ban would be imposed, new equipment had been imported and installed. However, one of the companies has decided to send the newly imported equipment back to the country of import, the Minister said. However, the Minister has further stated that a limited grace period will be given to sell only the materials currently produced from the raw materials imported into the country. The Minister points out that the relevant gazette notification has been issued.