Late last week, the union environment ministry notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, placing a ban on certain single-use plastic items with low utility and high littering potential by 2022.
“The manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of following single-use plastic, including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene, commodities shall be prohibited with effect from July 1, 2022: ear buds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polystyrene (thermocol) for decoration; plates, cups, glasses, cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straw, trays; wrapping or packing films around sweet boxes, invitation cards, and cigarette packets, plastic of PVC banners less than 100 micron, stirrers,” the notification read.
Additionally, the thickness of plastic carry bags will increase from 50 microns to 75 microns from September 30, 2021, and to 120 microns from December 21, 2022. Non-woven plastic carry bags cannot be under 60 grams per square metre (GSM) from September 30, 2021.
Despite previous efforts by governments to curb India's ballooning plastic use problem, India still, reportedly, generates an estimated 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, equivalent to 946,000 truckloads at 10 tonnes a truck. Of this, some 40 per cent of plastic waste remains uncollected, according to data from the environment ministry. The boom in e-commerce and food delivery borne out of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent restrictions imposed has only exacerbated this problem.
The persistence of India's plastic waste problem boils down to a failure of the country's towns and cities to effectively implement plastic waste management rules. Consequently, this waste finds itself in landfills, drains and rivers (where it subsequently flows out to sea endangering marine life). It also seeps into the soil contaminating groundwater, and inevitably, contaminates the food and water we drink. The silent plastic crisis, it is estimated, claims the lives of between 400,000 and 1 million every year in low-and middle-income nations.
The majority of the solutions proposed to solve India's plastic waste problem have focused on taxing plastic producers, or mandating producers to offset their plastic production via payments to funds used for recycling and mitigation efforts.
However, there is a growing consensus that addressing a problem as widespread and ingrained as plastic use may require a concerted effort to move towards modes of production premised on the principles of a circular economy.
A circular economy is one where consumption materials are designed, used, and re-used such that they remain in the economic system for as long as possible. It effectively entails creating a 'closed-loop' system whereby the value of materials, including plastic, does not wane as a result of being discarded or thrown away.
Moreover, a circular economy also acknowledges the deep inter-connectedness of industries and will therefore mandate sector-specific roadmaps that will see companies across sectors collaborate in devising more sustainable production configurations.
Focusing on the ten industries that cause the most ecological damage – transportation, food, agriculture, plastics, cement, packaging, metals and minerals, automobiles, electronics and construction - will be critical in this regard.
Studies from the Ellen McArthur Foundation have revealed that transitioning from a linear economy to a circular economy could not only yield global economic benefits as high as $624 billion but also pave the way to reduce carbon emissions by 44 per cent by 2050.
Published by timesnownews.com
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