Hyderabad, June 5 -- Environmentalists and civic experts are stressing the urgent need to ban plastic and enforce stricter recycling measures as nearly 8,000 tons of waste are being generated every day in the city, most of which ends up choking its drains, ponds, and lakes due to a lack of segregation and recycling systems.

Speaking at a meeting organised on the occasion of World Environment Day, led by HYDRAA commissioner AV Ranganath, participants warned that plastic waste has become the biggest threat to the environment, especially in urban areas of the city, where solid waste management is poor.

"Plastic thrown on roads and into canals eventually ends up in ponds and water bodies. It not only pollutes but blocks the natural flow of ...