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HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

Down To Earth

September 01, 2022

The plastic problem needs to be reframed. The issue is not just how plastic waste is disposed of, but also how the material enters the supply chain and for whose benefit. India cannot end plastic pollution until it holds the petrochemical behemoths and the plastic industry accountable for manufacturing the menace

- SIDDHARTH GHANSHYAM SINGH and ATIN BISWAS

JUST TWO years after Prime J Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech called for putting an end to the use of single-use plastics, India imposed a ban on 21 such items from July 1, 2022.

While the rollout is a positive step, the Centre's decision not to include packaging plastics, an umbrella term for a host of plastic products used by fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, is likely to come in the way of Modi's plan to make India single-use-plastic-free by 2022. After all, packaging plastic, which includes everything from plastic bottles and sachets to multi-layered plastic (MLP) packets used for junk food, accounted for 59 per cent of the country's plastic waste generated in 2018-19, according to the plastic industry body PlastIndia Foundation.

The reason the FMCG sector has escaped the ban largely unscathed is the skewed discourse conveniently peddled by the industry. They claim that the problem with plastics is only of waste management and not of material production because it can be recycled, repurposed, burned and buried. This selective approach is unlikely to solve the plastic waste problem that is mounting at an alarming rate.

If the trend continues, greenhouse gas emissions from plastics alone would contribute around 15 per cent of the global carbon budget by 2050, warns a 2019 study published in Nature Climate Change. The lifetime cost to society, the environment and the economy of plastic produced in 2019 alone was US $3.7 trillion-more than India's gross domestic product-estimates a 2021 report by international non-profit wwF. Unless action is taken, this cost is set to double for the plastic produced in 2040, it warns.