{"id":53554,"date":"2019-10-30T19:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T13:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?p=53554"},"modified":"2019-10-30T15:27:02","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T09:57:02","slug":"7-pm-single-use-plastics-challenges-and-way-forward-30th-october-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-single-use-plastics-challenges-and-way-forward-30th-october-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"7 PM | Single Use Plastics: Challenges and way forward | 30th October, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Context:\n<\/strong>Single\nUse plastic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>More\nin news:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Prime Minister\u00a0Narendra Modi\u00a0made a dramatic announcement on August 15, 2019, that India would eliminate single-use plastics by 2022.\u00a0<\/li><li>In another statement on October 2, Gandhi Jayanti, PM said that single-use plastics (SUPs) will be phased out by 2022, and officials indicated that states will play a major role in ensuring this happens.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Plastic:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Plastic&nbsp;is a word that originally\nmeant \u201cpliable and easily shaped.\u201d <\/li><li>It only recently became a name for a\ncategory of materials called polymers. The word&nbsp;polymer&nbsp;means \u201cof\nmany parts,\u201d and polymers are made of long chains of molecules. <\/li><li>Polymers abound in nature. Cellulose, the\nmaterial that makes up the cell walls of plants, is a very common natural\npolymer.<\/li><li>The first synthetic polymer was invented\nin 1869 by John Wesley Hyatt.<\/li><li>&nbsp;It\nhas been an integral part of our lives, contributing much to the convenience of\nmodern living because of the flexibility, durability and lightness of this\nmaterial.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Single\nUse Plastic (SUPs) and associated problems:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Single-use plastics are disposable plastics meant for use-and-throw. <\/li><li>These comprise polythene bags, plastic drinking bottles, plastic bottle caps, food wrappers, plastic sachets, plastic wrappers, straws, stirrers and Styrofoam cups or plates.<\/li><li>According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF), plastic is harmful to the environment as it is non-biodegradable, takes years to disintegrate.<\/li><li>Single-use plastics slowly and gradually break down into smaller pieces of plastic known as microplastics.<\/li><li>It can take thousands of years for plastic bags to decompose, thus contaminating our soil and water in the process. The noxious chemicals used to produce plastic gets transmitted to animal tissue, and finally, enter the human food chain, the WWF claims.<\/li><li>It has a big impact on wildlife too.<ul><li>Birds usually confuse shreds of plastic bags for food and end up eating the toxic debris. <\/li><li>Fish consume thousands of tons of plastic in a year, ultimately transferring it up the food chain to marine mammals.<\/li><li>Plastic kills an estimated 1 million sea birds every year and affects around 700 species which get infected by ingesting plastics.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>WWF further claims that a person could be consuming 5 grams of plastic a week. <\/li><li>According to Un-Plastic Collective Report, an estimated 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced since the early 1950s, about 60% of which has ended up either in a landfill or the natural environment.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Plastic\nin India:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"316\" height=\"222\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/sss.jpg?resize=316%2C222&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53555\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Average per capita\nconsumption of plastic in India is about 11kgs.<\/li><li>An estimate by the Ministry of Petroleum\nand Natural gas suggests that the annual per capita consumption in India would\nbe 20 kgs by 2022. <\/li><li>As per CPCB reports, plastic contributes\nto 8% of the total solid waste, with Delhi producing the maximum quantity followed\nby Kolkata and Ahmedabad. <\/li><li>Only 60% of the total plastic waste is\nbeing recycled. Households generate maximum plastic waste, of which water and\nsoft drink bottles form a large number.<\/li><li>India alone generates 9.46 million tonnes\nof plastic waste every year, around 43% of which comprises single-use plastic. <\/li><li>It poses a mammoth&nbsp;problem for India\nsince 40% of plastic waste remains uncollected.<\/li><li>The growing volume is, to a great extent,\nbecause of rising e-commerce in India with people buying from companies like\nAmazon and&nbsp;Flipkart&nbsp;that use single-use plastic for disposable\npackaging.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Collection\nof Plastic Waste:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016\nmandated the producers and brand owners to devise a plan in consultation with\nthe local bodies to introduce a collect-back system. This system is known as\nthe Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR). <\/li><li>CPCB has estimated the collection\nefficiency as 80.28% in 2014, out of which only 28.4% was treated. Remaining\nquantities were disposed in landfills or open dumps. <\/li><li>ULBs could take cue from some best\npractices followed in cities like Bangalore where Dry Waste Collection Centres\nhave not only been established but also have a self-sustainable business model.\nNeed to establish a monetized collection model for plastic waste that has\neconomic returns for all those involved. <\/li><li>Virgin plastics (e.g. those used in food\npackets, etc) should be collected separately because of the higher value it\ndraws.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Flaws\nin enforcement:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Sikkim was a pioneer in banning\nplastic bags as far back as 1998. Others followed, and so far, around 22 states\nand UTs have bans in place. But merely announcing a ban will not solve the\nproblem of plastic disposal. It has to be regulated at all points, strictly\nenforced and monitored.<\/li><li>Due to ineffective monitoring, everybody\nflouts the rules so the ban does not serve the purpose. In Maharashtra, for\nexample, the ban on single use disposable plastic was strictly enforced\ninitially. But now it\u2019s back to square one.<\/li><li>Plastics Waste Management Rules 2016 included a clause in\nRule 15 which called for explicit pricing of carry-bags. This required vendors\nto register and pay an annual fee to the urban local bodies. But lobbying by\nthe producers of plastics ensured that this clause was removed by an amendment\nin 2018.<strong><\/strong><\/li><li>The Plastic Waste Management Rules of 2016 require creators\nof such packaging waste to take it back at their cost or pay cities for its\nmanagement under Extended Manufacturer Responsibility. But there is little\ncompliance.<strong><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What\nneeds to be done?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>We need to build awareness of the damage\ncaused by SUPs and develop consumer consciousness to minimise their use.<\/li><li>SUPs can potentially be converted by\nthermo-mechanical recycling into plastic granules for blending into other\nplastic products, usually irrigation piping for agriculture.<\/li><li>Recycled plastic can be used to strengthen\nroads. Use of plastics more than doubles or triples road life \u2014 it has been\napproved by the Indian Road Congress and mandated by the National Highway\nAuthority in November 2015 for upto 50 km around every city with a population\nof over 5,00,000.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Another ingenious idea is to replace the\nuse of thermocol with totally biodegradable pith from the shola\/sola plant\n(Aeschynomene aspera) \u2014 this was used in huge quantities till the 1950s for making\nsola-topees or pith helmets for colonials and their armies.<\/li><li>Strict enforcement and implementation of\nPlastic waste management rules 2016.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source:\n<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/cities-at-crossroads-in-a-plastic-world-6093444\/\">https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/cities-at-crossroads-in-a-plastic-world-6093444\/<\/a><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: Single Use plastic. More in news: Prime Minister\u00a0Narendra Modi\u00a0made a dramatic announcement on August 15, 2019, that India would eliminate single-use plastics by 2022.\u00a0 In another statement on October 2, Gandhi Jayanti, PM said that single-use plastics (SUPs) will be phased out by 2022, and officials indicated that states will play a major role&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-single-use-plastics-challenges-and-way-forward-30th-october-2019\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">7 PM | Single Use Plastics: Challenges and way forward | 30th October, 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-pm","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/7-PM.png?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704934862},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}