Plastic Pollution
Plastic is a light weight, hygienic, and resistant material which can be moulded in a wide range of applications and is cheaply manufactured. Because of these reasons, since the 1950s the production of plastic has outpaced almost all other materials.
Two categories of plastics : Thermoplastics and Thermosets.
Thermoplastic : Thermoplastics are a family of plastics that can be melted when heated and hardened when cooled. These characteristics which lend the material its name, are reversible. That is it can be reheated, reshaped and frozen repeatedly.
Thermosets : Thermosets are a family of plastics that undergo a chemical change when heated , creating a three dimensional network. After they are heated and formed , these plastics cannot be re melted and reformed
Extent of global Plastic Pollution :
- Packaging – 36%
- Building and construction – 16%
- Textiles – 14%
- Consumer and industrial products – 10%
- Transportation – 7%
- Industrial machinery – 1%
- Electrical/electronic – 4%
How is plastic disposed of ?
According to UNEP, as of 2015 of the 9 billion tonnes of plastic that the world has ever produced only 9% has been recycled and 12% has been incinerated. Rest ends up in landfill, dumps and the environment.
India produces around 10 million tonnes of plastic per year of which aground 5 million tonnes is rendered waste every year. Therefore it’s crucial that this waste is properly managed.
The environmental harm caused by plastics has been a subject of international research and analysis for many years now.
A study published by the World Wildlife Foundation in 2019 estimates that an average human may be ingesting as much as 5 grams of plastic every week. This is because almost 1/3 rd of plastic waste that is getting generated ends up in nature, especially water, which is the largest source of plastic ingestion.
Single Use Plastic
What is single use plastic? Single use plastics also known as disposable plastics include plastic items intended to be used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. They include grocery bags, food packaging, bottles, straws, containers, cups, and cutlery. These are the waste products of a throwaway culture that treats plastic as disposable materials rather than a valuable resource to be harnessed.
No blanket ban for now. No suitable alternatives and too disruptive for industry and thus economy. PM Modi announced in October 2019 that Single Use Plastic will be phased out by 2022.
Harmful effects of Plastic Pollution :
Environmental impacts: Plastic takes up to thousands of years to decompose and thus contaminate soil and water. They pose significant ingestion,choking and entanglement hazards to wildlife on land and in the oceans. There is emerging evidence that the toxic chemicals added during the manufacturing process transfer from the ingested plastic into the animal’s tissues, eventually entering the food chain for humans as well.
Health and social impact : Health losses, welfare losses >= unusable parks, sewage blocking >= Malaria,Dengue etc.
Economic impact:
- Visual pollution negatively impacts the tourism sector.
- Further, the future cost of removing these plastics from nature is higher than the cost of preventing littering today.
- Exacerbate disasters like floods by blocking of drains. It specially contributes to urban floods.
- Even the biodegradable plastics have many unintended consequences
- Often the biodegradable plastic items break down completely only at temperatures above 50 degree Celsius. Since these conditions are met very rarely in the environment. Therefore, even bio plastics derived from renewable sources (such as corn starch, cassava roots or sugarcane) or from bacterial fermentation of sugar or lipids don’t automatically degrade in the environment and especially not in the ocean.
Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 (Amended in 2018 again)
Key provisions of the 2016 Rules : Increasing Minimum Thickness of plastic carry bags from 40 to 60 microns. Similarly, the minimum thickness of plastic sheets is also increased to 50 micrometres.
EPR was extended to plastic manufacturers after the notification PWMR, 2016.
Shopkeepers and vendors who provide plastic carry bags must register with local authority (panchayat, ULB) and the money collected from customers for carry bags should be used by local bodies for sustainable management of waste.
They can only use plastic carry bags which have been properly labelled and marked for use or else there will be imposition of fines.
ULB and panchayats have been provided with the responsibility of establishing and operating waste management systems .
The land department (or any department with business allocation of land allotment with state governments) should allocate land for establishing waste management facilities.
Gainful usage of plastic waste has also been promoted in road construction, waste to oil conversion etc.
The 2018 amendments provided for:
Extension of phasing out norms for all MLPs which are non recyclable or non energy recoverable , or with no alternate use.
CPCB will evolve a centralised registration system for producers/ importers/ brand owners who contribute to plastic waste.
This will provide for simplified registration and hence promote ease of doing business in these circumstances. A national registry for producers in more than two states and for producers at 1 or 2 states there will be a registry at state level.
Plastic was not completely banned as there is no suitable , clean and economic alternative for now. Blanket ban will be impractical.
Draft Extended Producer Responsibility (under plastic waste management rules, 2016)
Three options to producers:
- Fee based Mechanism : Pay a fee in the central corpus that would be spent towards managing the waste
- Buy credit from a system that would be established to offset the plastic waste they generate.
- Participate in and pay for establishing producer Responsibility organisation (PROs) to collect and manage post-consumer plastics waste.
Manufacturers :
- Five years to achieve waste management targets, starting with 30 % and moving up to 90% in the fifth year after the rules are notified.
- All stakeholders involved in the waste management process- producers , civic bodies,collectors,recyclers etc. would be registered with a new national registry through an online portal.
BAN ON SINGLE USE PLASTIC:
About the SUP Ban : SUP items which have low utility and high littering potential identified under the Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Amendment Rules, 2021. Their manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use is prohibited. o Ban not applicable to compostable plastic products.
Penalties for violation: Under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 –imprisonment up to 5 years, or a penalty up to Rs 1 lakh, or both.
Important provisions of PWM Amendment Rules, 2021:
- Aimed to curb pollution caused by littered and unmanaged plastic and phase out SUP items by 2022.
- Single use plastic (SUP) defined as a plastic item intended to be used once for the same purpose before being disposed of or recycled.
- Thickness of plastic carry bags increased from 50 microns to 75 microns with effect from 30th September 2021 and to 120 microns with effect from the 31st December, 2022.
- Complete ban on use of sachets using plastic material for storing, packing or selling gutkha, tobacco and pan masala.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Guidelines given legal force: Plastic packaging waste not covered under identified SUP items shall be collected and managed in an environmentally sustainable way through EPR of the producer, importer and brand owner (PIBO) as per PWM Rules, 2016.
PRAKRITI Mascot to spread greater awareness among masses and bring behavioural change. National Dashboard on Elimination of Single Use Plastic and Plastic Waste Management set up by MoEFCC to bring all stakeholders at one place and track the progress.
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) launched Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Portal for Plastic Packaging for compliance to EPR Obligations by Producers, Importers and Brand-owners.
Mobile App for SUP Grievance Redressal to empower citizens to check sale/usage/ manufacturing of SUP in their area. Monitoring module for SUP for local bodies, State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs)/ Pollution Control Committees (PCCs) and CPCB, to inventorize details of SUP production/ sale & usage in commercial establishments at district level, and on-ground enforcement of ban on SUP. Directions issued at national, state and local level
All leading petrochemical industries do not supply plastic raw materials to the industries engaged in banned SUP production. SPCB/PCCs to modify/revoke consent to operate issued under Air/Water Act to industries engaged in banned SUP production. Customs Authority to stop the import of banned SUP items. Local authorities to issue fresh commercial licences with the condition that SUP items will not be sold on their premises.
Findings based on Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat among top Indian Plastic waste producers. India ranks 5th in generation of plastic waste with an annual discharge of 3.5 million tonnes in 2020.
Almost 83% of this comes from just 10 states/ UTs. On a per capita basis, India’s plastic waste generation has almost doubled over FY 2016-20; however, remains lower than most of the developed economies.
Puneet Sagar Abhiyan (PSA): UNEP has signed a MoU with the National Cadet Corps to tackle the issue of plastic pollution through PSA and Tide Turners Plastic Challenge programme.
Aim: To increase awareness amongst the local population about the importance of keeping the beaches and river fronts clean. Global Plastics Outlook: Policy Scenarios to 2060 .
The ‘Global Plastics Outlook: Policy Scenarios to 2060’ report was recently released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Projections of the report for the year 2060 : Use of plastics and plastic waste will almost triple globally, driven by economic and population growth. Largest increases expected in emerging economies in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Impacts from plastic lifecycle are projected to more than double- GHG emissions, Ozone formation, acidification, and human toxicity.
Un-Plastic Collective (UPC) : It is a voluntary initiative launched by the UN-Environment Program-India, Confederation of Indian Industry and WWF-India to drive corporate action toward solutions on plastic leakage.
GloLitter Partnerships Project : It was launched by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to assist developing countries to prevent and reduce marine plastic litter from the maritime transport and fisheries sectors and identifies opportunities for the reduction of plastic uses in both fisheries and maritime transport sectors.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Plastic Waste Management (PWM) (2018- 2024) programme
- It aims to almost triple its PWM to 100 cities in India by 2024.
- UNDP launched this project, in partnership with Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited, Hindustan Unilever Limited among others, for building on existing systems to reduce the impact of plastic waste on the environment in India.
- It promotes collection, segregation, and recycling of all kinds of plastics to move towards a circular economy. So far, 83,000 metric tonne of plastic waste has been collected.
- The project has reached out to 5500 Safai Sathis, in an effort to institutionalize workers from the informal sector.
- “Utthaan”, a social protection programme was launched to help 9000 safai sathis.
Uronema Africanum Borge (UAB) : Recently, researchers from University of Madras and Presidency College, Chennai isolated UAB as a potential biodegradation agent for plastic sheets.
UAB is a variety of microalga which produce different kinds of extracellular polysaccharides, enzymes, toxins such as cyanotoxins, hormones to react with polymer sheets and break them into simpler monomers. UAB is commonly found in Africa, Asia and Europe. It provides a safe and environment friendly process to dispose plastics over existing incineration, land-filling and recycling.
Zero Waste Cities Challenge : The “WasteAid” has chosen two winners (entrepreneurs from Shree Guru Plastic and Inside Out) from Guwahati for their work on promoting circular economy and reducing the usage of plastics. Guwahati was among the three cities chosen by WasteAid, a United Kingdom-based nonprofit, to launch a Zero Waste Cities Challenge. Other two are Johannesburg and Ho Chi Minh City.
The aim was to find entrepreneurs with innovative business ideas that can help reduce or recycle waste and create green employment opportunities.
Bubble curtain : This technology is being used for the first time in India to stop plastic from entering the river Yamuna. It is a non-invasive solution to stop plastic from entering the oceans. Ships and fish can pass through the air bubbles, but plastics will be stopped.
The bubble screen is created by a specially designed air tube which is placed diagonally on the bed of the canal or river. It brings waste to the surface, channels the plastic onto the banks where it can be extracted.
India Plastics Pact :
The India Plastics Pact (IPP) was launched as a collaboration between WWF India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The initiative brings together all stakeholder across the whole value chain to set time-bound target-based commitments to transform the current linear plastics system into a circular plastics economy.
The vision, targets and ambition of the IPP are aligned with the circular economy principles of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy in which ‘plastic never becomes waste’. Plastic pact model is currently implemented in a number of countries such as the UK, South Africa, Australia. The first Plastics Pact was launched in the U.K. in 2018. The pact is supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and WRAP (Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production) in providing new technologies and endorsed by the British High Commission in India.
Road made of Plastic Waste : MoRT&H has issued guidelines for use of plastic waste in Road construction. Mandatory use of waste plastic in periodic renewal coat of pavement on National highways and also in the wearing of service roads within 50 km periphery of urban areas having population of 5 lakh or more.
Indian road congress (IRC) has formulated guidelines for the use of waste plastic in hot bituminous mixes for wearing courses.
International Efforts to fight Plastic Pollution :
Awareness and Education : The theme of World Environment Day, 2018 was “Beat plastic pollution” focused on increasing awareness related to plastic pollution across the world. EU parliament ban of 20 single use plastics.
About : The measure has taken effect from 2021 and targets the top disposable products that wash up on European shores, provided that consumers have alternatives.
Key provisions :
- 10 banned plastic items include: Straws, forks, knives , cotton buds, plates , balloon sticks,food and beverage containers made up of expanded polystyrene and all products made up of oxo degradable plastics.
- Voluntary withdrawal of other single use plastics
- EU countries can choose their own methods of reducing the use of other single use plastics such as takeout containers and cups for beverages.
- EU countries to collect and recycle 90% of the plastic bottles by 2029.
- Plastic bottles will have to contain at least 25% of recycled content by 2025 and 30% by 2030
- Tobacco companies will be required to cover the costs of public collections of cigarette stubs which are the second most littered single use plastic items. Likewise, manufacturers of fishing gear will have to bear the cost of net loss in the sea.
- EU member countries have drawn up their own laws to implement single use plastics directives. Some have even decided to add to the list of banned SUPs.
Other international initiatives for Plastic Pollution :
Clean sea campaign : To reduce and eliminate the use of single use plastic , cosmetics and micro plastic sources.
Stockholm convention on POPs : It is an international environment treaty that came into force in 2004 and aims to restrict or eliminate the production of POPs.
Honolulu strategy by UNEP aimed at reduce Marine Debris : The Honolulu strategy is a framework for comprehensive and global collaborative effort to reduce the ecological, human health and economic impacts of marine debris worldwide. This framework is organised by a set of goals and strategies applicable all over the world,regardless of specific conditions or challenges
Alliance to end plastic waste : Launched in Jan 2019. It is a not for profit organisation that include companies which make, use ,sell , process , collect and recycle plastics.