Challenges To Ban Single-Use Plastics In India
Source : Business Standard
GS III : Environment Issue
What we discuss under Challenges To Ban Single-Use Plastics In India ?
- What are the strategies of India to ban SUP by 2021 ?
- What is the challenges for Phase out SUP ?
- Need of the Hour
Why in News ?
A government committee has identified the single use plastic (SUP) items to be banned based on an index of their utility and environmental impact.
- But there are concerns against the ban as the major challenge is availability of an alternative.
Key Facts
- Government of India is planning to eliminate single use plastics from market
Photo by Jeremy Zero on Unsplash - Issues of Surge In Single Use Plastic came in a report comes from researchers led by Minderoo, a nonprofit organization based in Australia.
- Union government in a bid to free India of single-use plastics by 2022 had laid out a multi-ministerial plan to discourage the use of single-use plastics across the country.
- Close to 26,000 tons of plastic waste is generated across India every day and 10,000 tons uncollected.
- In fact India’s per capita consumption of plastic at 11 kilograms (kg) per year is still among the lowest in the world against global average is 28 kg per year.
- What are the strategies of India to ban SUP by 2021 ?
- Ministry has issued a draft notification on March 11 which lays down how various single-use plastic products will be prohibited in phases next year.
- There are three stages of ban was proposed.
- First category of SUP
- Items proposed to be phased out are plastic sticks used in balloons, flags, candy, ice-cream and ear buds, and thermocol that is used in decorations.
- Second category of SUP
- Proposed to be banned from July 1, 2022, includes items such as plates, cups, glasses and cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straws, trays; wrapping and packing films used in sweet boxes; invitation cards; cigarette packets; stirrers and plastic banners that are less than 100 microns in thickness.
- Third category of SUP
- Prohibition is for non-woven bags below 240 microns in thickness.
- This is proposed to start from September next year 2022.
What is the challenges for Phase out SUP ?
- Single-use plastic has been a very good business, and that’s projected to continue.
- Efforts focused on curtailing the production of single-use plastic have been limited so far.
- The economics favour more plastic production.
- A significant amount ends up in rivers, oceans and landfills are not recyclable.
- India does not have systems in place for effective segregation, collection and recycling.
- No policy for recycling plastics. Also challenges are there to setup a recycling plant because of enviromental issues raised by Pollution Control Boards of various states.
- Trade bodies like All India Plastic Manufacturers Association (AIPMA) recommends government to extend the deadline for phasing out SUP products by a period of one year to 2023 because of challenges caused by COVID.
Need of the Hour
- Increasing the efficacy of recycling and supporting improvements in plastic waste recovery.
- Immediately find an alternative for SUP plastics and support those industry.
- Government has to do a thorough economic and environmental cost-benefit analysis.
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