Single-Use Plastics

In News

• Recently, the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) launched the “Clean and Green” campaign on the World Environment Day.
  • These include: 
    • cleaning and plogging drives, 
    • plastic waste collection drives, and 
    • tree-plantation drives. 
  • Centre has also written to States to phase out Single-Use Plastics (SUP) on this occasion. India is committed to ban SUP by June 30, 2022. 

Single-Use Plastics (SUP)

• About:
  • As the name suggests, single-use plastics (SUPs) are those that are discarded after one-time use. 
  • Besides the ubiquitous plastic bags, SUPs include water and flavoured/aerated drinks bottles, takeaway food containers, disposable cutlery, straws, and stirrers, processed food packets and wrappers, cotton bud sticks, etc. 
  • Of these, foamed products such as cutlery, plates, and cups are considered the most lethal to the environment.
• Recycling of Plastic:
  • About 94% of plastics are recyclable. 
  • India recycles about 60%; the rest goes to landfills, the sea, and waste-to-energy plants. 
  • Plastics have an end life too. They can’t be treated more than four-five times.
  • The CPCB warns that recycled products are at times more harmful to the environment, as they contain additives and colours.

Impact of Single-Use Plastics (SUP)

• Impact on the environment:
  • If not recycled, plastic can take a thousand years to decompose, according to UN Environment, the United Nations Environment Programme. 
  • At landfills, it disintegrates into small fragments and leaches carcinogenic metals into groundwater. 
  • Plastic is highly inflammable — a reason why landfills are frequently ablaze, releasing toxic gases into the environment. 
  • It floats on the sea surface and ends up clogging airways of marine animals.
  • Invisible plastic has been identified in tap water, beer, salt and are present in all samples collected in the world’s oceans, including the Arctic.
  • Fish consume thousands of tons of plastic in a year, ultimately transferring it up the food chain to marine mammals.
  • They also clog drains and water passages, leading to floods especially during heavy downpours.
• Economic impact:
  • Many plastic commodities are not collected and recycled as the cost of collection of SUPs is more than the economic cost.
  • Environmental experts have found that rag-pickers find thicker plastic bags have higher value than thinner ones. 
  • Plastic bags with higher thickness are more easily handled as waste and have higher recyclability.
  • According to conservative forecasts made in 2020, the direct harm to the blue economy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will be $2.1 billion per year.
• Climate change:
  • Plastic, which is a petroleum product, also contributes to global warming. 
  • If plastic waste is incinerated, it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, thereby increasing carbon emissions.
• Tourism:
  • Plastic waste damages the aesthetic value of tourist destinations, leading to decreased tourism-related incomes and major economic costs related to the cleaning and maintenance of the sites.

India’s Efforts In Tackling Plastic Waste

• The Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016: 
  • It clearly stipulates that urban local bodies (ULBs) should ban less than 50 micron thick plastic bags and not allow the usage of recycled plastics for packing food, beverage or any other eatables.
  • It introduced the concept of EPR(Extended Producer Responsibility) to manage plastics in India.
    • EPR means the responsibility of a producer for environmentally sound management of the product until the end of its life.
• Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2022: 
  • The guidelines on EPR(Extended Producer Responsibility) coupled with the prohibition of identified single-use plastic items.
  • It banned the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of carry bags made of virgin or recycled plastic less than seventy-five microns. 
  • The items that will be banned are—Earbuds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polystyrene (thermocol) for decoration, plastic plates, cups, glasses, cutlery such as forks, spoons and knives, straw, trays, wrapping films around sweet boxes, invitation cards, and cigarette packets, plastic or PVC banners less than 100-microns and stirrers.
    • The ban will not apply to commodities made of compostable plastic.
  • The Central Pollution Control Board, along with state pollution bodies, will monitor the ban, identify violations, and impose penalties already prescribed under the Environmental Protection Act.
• Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban 2.0:
  • Segregation and sorting: 
    • Under this, every Urban Local Bodies (ULB) is required to adopt 100% source segregation of waste, and have access to a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) for sorting the dry waste (including plastic waste) into further fractions for recycling and/ or processing into value-added products. 
    • This is aimed to reduce plastic and dry waste ending up in dumpsites or waterbodies.
  • Further, the ULBs will need to identify SUP ‘hotspots’ and eliminate them.
  • ULBs have to leverage the support of State Pollution Control Boards and form special enforcement squads, conducting surprise inspections and imposing heavy fines and penalties on defaulters, for enforcing SUP bans.
  • Alternatives: 
    • The ULBs will need to identify SUP alternatives (such as cloth/jute/plastic bags, degradable cutleries, etc.) readily available in the market and create awareness about such alternatives among citizens.
  • Reuse:
    • States and ULBs have also been advised to enter into MoUs with nearby cement plants or other industrial units as well to ensure that a part of the plastic waste generated is used either as an alternative fuel in cement plants or for road construction purposes. 

Way Ahead

• Designing a product: 
  • Identifying plastic items that can be replaced with non-plastic, recyclable, or biodegradable materials is the first step. 
  • Find alternatives to single-use plastics and reusable design goods by working with product designers. Countries must embrace circular and sustainable economic practices throughout the plastics value chain to accomplish this.
• Bottle Banks:
  • Corporate entities, dealing with bottled drinks may be requested to set up Bottle Banks (where users can get paid for dropping off PET bottles), and also set up subsidized reusable plastic bottle booths at different locations, as part of their Extended Producers’ Responsibility (EPR) mandates. 
• Thaila (bag)/Bartan (Utensils) kiosks or bhandars:
  • Alongside, ULBs may establish Thaila (bag)/Bartan (Utensils) kiosks or bhandars to provide citizens with alternatives to SUP, especially for use in public meetings and festivals, thereby helping to reduce SUP consumption. 
• Swachhata raths:
  • These initiatives may be strengthened through ‘swachhata raths’ to be deployed in all public places, markets, and other high footfall areas to spread awareness against use of SUP and for availing SUP-alternatives.
• Technologies and Innovation: 
  • Developing tools and technology to assist governments and organisations in measuring and monitoring plastic garbage in cities.
• A 2011 study by the Delhi School of Economics 
  • It suggested that levying a fee on consumers would yield better results than a ban, due to “little enforcement capacity”. 
  • People may be forced to carry biodegradable bags to grocery stores, vegetable markets and shopping malls if the alternative were to hurt their pockets.

Source: AIR