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| Kunal Bharti
Political and Social Analyst
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Prime minister Narendra modi in his address to the nation on the 73rd Independence Day, urged the citizens of the country to work towards stopping the use of single-use plastic. He shared his vision of making India 'plastic-free' and raised a concern about indiscriminate use of plastics and ill-effects. He said, let us make India free of single-use plastics by October 2. PM Modi also encouraged the Indians to replace the use of plastic bags by cloth & Jute bags in order to protect the environment.
According to a report, India produces over 550,000 tonnes of plastic waste every year which subsequently reaches ocean. Plastic waste raises serious problems for the life of aquatic and terrestrial life. It releases toxic chemicals, which is often the reason for the death of aquatic animals and even finds its way into the water supplied to our homes. Therefore, the limited and judicial use of plastic is the only way in which India can fight this environmental battle.
On World Environment Day last year, the government had announced its intention to phase out single-use plastic like straws and cups by 2022. According to the Environment Ministry, about 20,000 tonnes of plastic waste is generated every day in the country, out of which only 13,000-14000 tonnes are collected. Experts have maintained that the problem lies in the inadequate collection and recycling systems. According to central pollution control board in India, 26 thousand tonne plastic wastes are produced everyday. Only 20 percent of the total wastes are recycled where as 39 percent of plastic wastes are buried under the top layer of earth surface to be destroyed. About 15 percent of the plastic wastes are burned out in atmosphere.
Plastic pollution has become an epidemic. Every year, we throw away enough plastic to circle the Earth four times. Plastics are detrimental to human health because of the chemicals used in their production. These chemicals are used to change the properties of plastics. Humans are exposed to such toxins through air and water, through food such as fish, or direct contact with plastic products.
As per IUCN 2017 report, micro plastics constitutes up to 30% of marine litter polluting the oceans. Plastic contains two hazardous chemicals: Bisphenol-A or BPA and Phthalates(additive). Since it is non-biodegradable it persists in environment for longer period and harms it. Plastic affects the marine ecosystem as fishes are killed when they swallow plastic particles. It releases toxic chemicals into the environment and ground water and causes cancer, infertility, birth defects etc. Plastic waste enters our food chain due to improper disposal.
Much of that waste doesn’t make it into a landfill, but instead ends up in our oceans, where it is responsible for killing one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals every year. For the good of the planet, it’s time to rethink how we use plastic. Every piece of plastic ever disposed of (this includes the toothbrush your great-grandfather used) is damaging the earth. It’s lying somewhere in the earth, floating in the ocean, or been broken down into micro particles and entering in the food chain. Although a fraction of the plastic disposed of is recycled, most of it eventually ends up in the ocean or in dump sites outside city limits.
Plastic is a polymer that was considered as one of the biggest breakthroughs made by man. It gained several advantages such as easy availability, low cost, minimal weight, could be molded into any shape, didn’t break easily and didn’t degrade easily. But, the advantage of not breaking and degrading easily has become one of the biggest cause of concern today. There is no way to dispose it off. It may take thousands of years in degrading even if it is burnt. It is thus, very dangerous for the ecology. If we go through facts, global plastic production was 1.5 million Tonnes in 1950 where as In 2016, global plastic production was 335 million Tonnes. Types of plastic (based on size) can be classified as
1)Macro-plastic: 25mm or more,
2)Meso-plastic: 5mm to 25mm,
3)Micro-plastic: 1 micron (0.001mm) to 5mm
Although there is no central and comprehensive definition for single-use plastic, crucial for any ban to be successful. Governments currently use various definitions. The problems caused by them were recognized in 2007. It has been found everywhere i.e. right from depth of the oceans to the peaks of Himalayas. Single used plastics are used once and thrown away. They accumulate in the water bodies and choke the drains which lead to floods.
Plastics are present in huge quantities in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean. Plastics in the form of polythene and polypropylene are present. Their consumption then kills the marine animals and human beings also acquire various diseases on their consumption of sea food. Basically Merchant ships expel cargo, sewage, used medical equipment, and other types of waste that contain plastic into the ocean are the common sources of plastic pollution. The largest ocean-based source of plastic pollution is discarded fishing gear (including traps and nets).Continental plastic litter such as Food Wrappers & Containers, Bottles and container caps, Plastic bags, Straws and stirrers etc. enters the ocean largely through storm-water runoff.
In India, Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016 was framed to Increase minimum thickness of plastic carry bags from 40 to 50 microns and stipulate minimum thickness of 50 micron for plastic sheets also to facilitate collection and recycle of plastic waste. It also expand the jurisdiction of applicability from the municipal area to rural areas. It also emphasize to bring in the responsibilities of producers and polluters, to introduce collect back system of plastic waste by the producers/brand owners, to introduce collection of plastic waste management fee, to promote use of plastic waste for road construction for gainful utilization of waste, and also address the waste disposal issue.
So far, 22 Indian States and Union Territories have joined the fight to beat the plastic pollution, announcing a ban on single-use plastics such as carry bags, cups, plates, cutlery, straws and thermocol products. Although in 2009, Himachal Pradesh was the first state to impose ban on plastic and polythene bags. The capital city, Delhi, banned all forms of disposable plastics including bags, cutlery, cups, plates and other single-use items in 2017, whereas the southern state of Karnataka imposed a complete ban on single-use plastic items in 2016. Some states such as Goa and Gujarat have also introduced partial bans in areas surrounding religious, historic or nature sites. Joining these states, Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand are the latest to announce a ban on certain types of plastic this year. India has also won global acclaim for its “Beat Plastic Pollution” resolve declared on World Environment Day last year, under which it pledged to eliminate single-use plastic by 2022. All such efforts have yielded positive results. Voluntary initiatives are having an impact in many States, as citizens reduce, reuse and sort their waste. Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 has banned plastic bags below 50 micron thickness. Union Ministry of Road Transport is using plastics collected from different states to use in road construction. In India only 60% of collected plastic waste is recycled and 43% of total plastic production is single use plastic(from straws to earbuds).
India has a major problem dealing with plastics, particularly single-use shopping bags that reach dumping sites, rivers and wetlands along with other waste. The most efficient way to deal with the pollution is to control the production and distribution of plastics. Banning single-use bags and making consumers pay a significant amount for the more durable ones is a feasible solution. India’s plastic ban across more than half of its states has businesses scrambling for cost effective responses.
Businesses in food, drink, retail, and e-commerce industries are set to be the most affected by the changes in legislation regarding single-use plastics due to their heavy use in packaging. In e-commerce, for instance, packaging charges comprise about two to three percent of fulfillment costs – the price of delivery, shipping, and compensating sellers for discounts. Switching to other alternatives means investing in new machinery and pushing these costs higher. For the food processing industry, leaving plastic, or switching to alternatives, also runs the risk of worsening other ills such as food spoilage.
We a need strategies to deal with the plastic that has already been disposed of. The CPCB report says that as mentioned in the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, waste has to be segregated separately at source. This includes separation of dry (plastic, paper, metal, glass) and wet (kitchen and garden) waste at source. The primary responsibility for collection of used plastic and multi-layered plastic sachets (branded chips, biscuit and snack packets) lies with their producers, importers and brand owners.
Many Efforts at International level to curb Plastic waste has been done. Local policies and actions such as bans on micro beads and single-use plastic bags are spreading across the globe, but there are only a handful of international documents focused on plastic pollution. International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, later modified as MARPOL, is an international agreement that addresses plastic pollution. MARPOL, which bans ships from dumping plastic at sea, was a great first step. But even after MARPOL came into force, dumping of plastic waste into sea has not reduced. Steps to prevent plastic waste lack defined reduction targets, methods to monitor progress.
In 2011, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States and UNEP created the Honolulu Strategy—a planning tool to reduce plastic pollution and its impacts.
In 2012, a voluntary commitment of a significant reduction of marine debris was introduced at Rio+20 with a deadline of 2025. In February 2017, UNEP announced the Clean Seas campaign, asking for individuals, industries, and member states to voluntarily commit to an action of their choice to reduce plastic pollution. United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi, more than 193 nations passed a resolution to eliminate plastic pollution in our seas. However, it’s not a legally binding treaty.
Many countries of the world has imposed banned on the use and consumption of plastics such as Tanzania, Kenya,Uganda, South Africa, Morocco, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Taiwan, England, Germany, Hawai, Italy, Scotland, Iceland etc. But government has failed to implement strict laws and illegally plastics are being used in some of these countries.
If current pollution rates continue, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050, said the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Nearly eight million tonnes of plastic – bottles, packaging and other waste – are dumped into the ocean every year. According to the UN Environment Programme, the global production of plastics has reached at over 300 million tonnes a year. Micro plastics (particles of less than 5 mm) such as those used in scrubbers and cosmetics, ingested by marine animals can cause accumulation of certain chemicals and result in physiological impacts. Micro plastics can impair reproduction and development and alter how species function. Like greenhouse gases, plastic is also not constrained by national boundaries, because it migrates via water and air currents and settles in benthic sediments. Majority of ocean’s area is beyond national jurisdictions which resulted into “garbage patches” in oceanic gyres by the accumulation of plastic waste from different nations. Unlike POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants) or chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), Plastic pollution has received little attention in terms of international agreements.
The health impact of the presence of polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate and other chemicals in drinking water, food and even inhaled air may not yet be clear, but indisputably these are contaminants. No single solution will stop marine plastic pollution. Hence an internationally agreed and a legally binding instrument are required.
Admittedly, the complexity of dealing with plastic waste is because of its ubiquity and distributed market. Several companies produce the same type of packaging so it is impossible for a given company to collect and recycle only its own packaging. Instead, these companies can collectively implement EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) is a strategy designed to promote the integration of environmental costs associated with goods throughout their life cycles into the market price of the products, by geographically dividing a region into zones and handle the waste generated in their designated zones. This strategy was used in Switzerland to recycle thermocol used for insulation of buildings. This also reduces collection, transportation and recycling costs. Companies and governments should interact and research on how to implement such plans.
In India, some companies have helped empower the informal recycling sector, giving waste pickers dignity and steady incomes. Another firm has worked with the informal sector and engineered the production of high quality recycled plastic. These companies, large corporates and governments could cooperate to implement innovative means to realize the value of plastic disposed of while simultaneously investing in phasing it out.
For example, a Canadian company monetises plastic waste in novel ways. It has one of the largest chains of waste plastic collection centers, where waste can be exchanged for anything (from cash to medical insurance to cooking fuel). Through this, multinational corporations have invested in recycling infrastructure and in providing a steady and increased rate for waste plastic to incentivise collection in poor countries. Such collection centers, like the ones operated by informal aggregators in India, can be very low-cost investments (a storage facility with a weighing scale and a smart phone).
Great civilizations have flourished without use of plastic but today with modern technology we are not able to find out a solution. It is no doubt that government has taken some strong steps to tackle plastic waste but what we need is multi-pronged strategy such as use of plastic for road construction, promotion of alternatives of single use plastics like use of kullad cup, Bamboo straw, starch bags and spoons etc which will not only generate employment opportunities but also reduce pollution and cancer risk at the age of 50- 60 due to plastic pollution. Proper ground level awareness should be done. Local actions are required for mitigating plastic pollution, using mechanisms such as bans on plastic bags, maximum daily limits for emissions into watersheds, and incentives for fishing gear retrieval. Behavioral changes are required and government needs to work on it. Countries should come together to establish measurable reduction targets for plastic waste. A meaningful international agreement—one with clearly defined waste reduction targets is the need of the hour.Effective policies must take into account all stages of the lifecycle of plastic—connecting producers to users and ultimately to waste managers. Fossil fuel subsidies incentivise the plastic market. Hence, Countries should end fossil fuel subsidies. Annually, 4–8% of oil is used to produce raw plastic.
Plastic is a wealth from the waste, India generates an estimated 16 lakh tonnes of plastic waste annually. If sold at the global average rate of 50 cents a kg, it can generate a revenue of ₹5,600 crore a year. Why then is most of this waste around us? In order to realise the potential for recycling, waste must first be segregated at source. This segregated waste should be then transported and treated separately. If plastic waste is mixed with organic and sanitary matter, its recyclability drastically reduces and its value lost.
As the European Union’s vision 2030 document on creating a circular plastic economy explains, the answer lies in changing the very nature of plastics, from cheap and disposable to durable, reusable and fully recyclable.
Marine plastic pollution is a “planetary crisis,” and we should hope for a “Paris-style” global treaty aimed at tackling it. The best way to reduce plastic pollution is to reduce and phase out its consumption. Solutions range from carrying your own reusable steel glass, box, spoon and cloth bag while eating out or shopping for groceries to using alternatives to plastic for household items.
Additionally, there should be research on ways to implement the rules, waste generation quantities and trends and find innovative alternatives to plastic.
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