NITI Aayog – UNDP Launch Handbook on Sustainable Management of Plastic Waste for ULB’s

What is the News?

NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman has launched the NITI Aayog – United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Handbook on Sustainable Urban Plastic Waste Management.

What was the need for this handbook?

Globally, only about 9% of the total plastic produced gets recycled, about 12% is incinerated and energy is recovered and the rest about 79% gets into the land, water, and ocean and pollutes the environment. 

In India, Urban local bodies (ULBs) are mandated under the Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, and the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 to manage municipal solid waste and plastic waste at the city level.

Hence, the handbook has provided suggestions that can be adopted by the urban local bodies for Sustainable Urban Plastic Waste Management.

What are the suggestions given by the handbook?

Material Recovery Facility(MRF)

The urban local bodies across states should adopt the Material Recovery Facility(MRF) model & implement it as a public-private partnership model for sustainable management of urban plastic waste.

A Materials Recovery Facility is a specialized plant that receives, separates and prepares recyclable materials for marketing to end-user manufacturers.

Institutionalization of Waste Pickers in governance bodies

The Waste Pickers need to be institutionalized by Urban Local Bodies(ULBs) for long-term plastic waste management.

They should be provided with benefits like making them financially literate and opening bank accounts for them, linking them to various social protection schemes, providing occupational ID cards, health benefits and personal protective equipment while working, and creating self-help groups. 

IEC and Digitization

The Indore model of spreading mass awareness and explaining the importance of waste management at the household level needs to be adopted by other cities. It will be the key to make plastic waste management a people’s movement.

Moreover, technology platforms need to be linked with relevant stakeholders such as bulk waste generators (BWGs), recyclers and waste pickers for more effective online reporting, monitoring and information exchange.

Source: This post is based on the article “NITI Aayog – UNDP Launch Handbook on Sustainable Management of Plastic Waste for ULB’s” published in PIB on 11th October 2021.