Where does india stand on plastic
waste?
1.
Most cities
and towns in India are not prepared to implement Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rules, 2016, and its amendments.
2.
Even biggest
municipal corporations failed to implement segregation of waste for processing
of recyclable, non-recyclable plastic and other waste separately by material
recovery facilities
3.
Per capita consumption
of plastic is projected to go up from 11 kg in 2014-15 to 20 kg by 2022
4.
43%
is single-use packaging in india with poor rates of recovery.
5.
A six-month deadline as per PWM
rules was fixed for producers to arrange for recovery of waste in partnership
with State Urban Development departments, has made little progress.
6.
Plastic is not marked with numerical
symbols (such as 1 for PET, 4 for Low Density Polyethylene, 5 for Polypropylene
and so on) to facilitate recycling using
the correct industrial process.
7.
Recycling reduces the volume of
non-recyclables that must be disposed of using methods such as co-processing in
cement kilns, plasma pyrolysis or land-filling.
8.
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)
issued notice to 52 companies asking them to file their plan to fulfil their
EPR (extended producer responsibility) obligation in managing plastic waste.
Protocol
that needs to be in place before ban on single-use plastic items:
1.
There should
be robust testing and certification mechanism to
verify the factors like scale, cost and quality of biodegradable and
compostable plastics which are assumed to be alternatives to plastic and the specific process required to biodegrade
or compost them.
2.
A
movement against plastic waste would have to prioritise the reduction of
single-use plastic such as multi-layer packaging, bread bags, food wrap, and
protective packaging.
3.
City municipal authorities should campaign
and focus on tested biodegradable and compostable alternatives for plates,
cutlery and cups, rigorous segregation of waste and scaled up recycling.
4.
Industry should look at innovation and new
materials in the days ahead, besides facilitating collection and recycling with
the help of city administrations meeting their EPR obligations.
Where
does India stand on plastic waste?
A
recent report by the Central Pollution Control Board pegs the amount of plastic
waste generated in India at
25,
940 tonnes per day.
Per
capita consumption of plastic is projected to go up from 11 kg in 2014-15 to
20kg by 2022.
Moreover,
43% of the plastic in use is Single use packaging with poor rates of recovery.
To
control this mounting problem Indian Govt. notified the Plastic waste
Management Rules 2016. As per one of the provisions of these Rules, each State
Pollution Control Board shall prepare and submit the Annual Report to the CPCB
on the implementation of these rules every year. However inaction from many
states made the CPCB approach the National Green Tribunal to enforce the
implementation of plastic waste management rules by the non compliant states.
Even
the biggest Municipal Corporations have failed to implement the segregation of
waste, collecting recyclable plastic etc.
How
to tackle this menace?
Keeping
in view that introduction of
biodegradable or compostable plastics on a large scale has many limitations, a
ban on Single use plastic surfaced as a priority now.
What
are single -Use plastic items?
Also
referred as disposable plastics they are commonly used for packaging items like
food packaging, grocery bags, containers etc. They have a higher carbon
footprint and are more resource and water intensive to produce.
Tackling
Single use plastic is a challenge because:
1.
Difficulty in collection:
Many
times, the packaging is not effectively collected ending up on clogging rivers
and other water bodies.
2.
Higher cost of collection: The design of such items is often a barrier for collection and
recycling.
However,
in a recent effort India has pledged to phase out all single use plastics by
2022.
The
protocol required before putting a ban on Single use plastic items:
1.
A comprehensive mechanism has to be laid down to certify the materials marketed
as alternatives and the specific process required to biodegrade or compost
them.
2.
A movement against plastic waste would have to prioritise the reduction of
single use plastics such as multi layer packaging, bread bags, food wrap and
protective packaging.
3.
Focus of the campaign should be on biodegradable plates, cutlery etc.
4.
Municipal authorities should play a key role on rigorous segregation of waste
and focus on recycling.
5
. The packaging industry should look at innovation and new materials in near
future to completely ban the single use plastic.
© 2016, Precisionacademy.in, All rights reserved
Precision Academy