1) Serious implementation of new plastic waste rules can address the problem of waste
Context: On August 12th, the center notified The Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules.
New Rules:
- The manufacture, sale and use of some single-use goods made with plastic, polystyrene, and expanded polystyrene, such as earbuds, plates, cups, glasses, cutlery, wrapping and packing films, are prohibited from July 1 2022.
- Carry bags must be at least 75 microns thick from September 30, 2021, and 120 microns from December 31 2022, compared to 50 microns at present.
- The decisions follow recommendations made by an expert group constituted by the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals two years ago.
Highlights of Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016:
- Responsibility of waste generators/producers is being introduced for the first time.
- Plastic waste management system: Producers to keep a record of their vendors to whom they have supplied raw materials for manufacturing carry bags, and multi-layered packaging.
- Extended Producer Responsibility: Earlier, EPR was left to the discretion of the local bodies.
- Now, producers (manufacture, or import of carrying bags, multi-layered packaging and sheets and the persons using these for packaging or wrapping their products) and
- Brand owners have been made responsible for collecting waste generated from their products.
- Collection System of plastic waste: by producers/brand owners to entrust more responsibility on waste generators, namely payment of user charge as prescribed by the local authority, collection and handing over of waste by the institutional generator, event organizers.
- Public events: marriage functions, religious gatherings, public meetings etc held in open spaces are included.
- Plastic waste management fee: through pre-registration of the producers, importers of plastic carry bags/multi-layered packaging for establishing the waste management system.
- Waste Management:
- Reduce: In the absence of a suitable alternative(eco-friendly substitute), it is impractical and undesirable to impose a blanket ban on the use of plastic all over the country.
- Phasing out of Multi-layered Plastic (MLP): These are “non-recyclable, or non-energy recoverable, or with no alternate use.” Introduced in 2018 amendment.
- Retailers have been assigned the responsibility of not providing the commodities in plastic bags/plastic sheets/multi-layered packaging which do not conform to these rules. Otherwise, they will have to pay the fine.
- Recycle:
- Minimum thickness of Plastic bag permitted: It is currently 50 microns, and will be increased to 75 microns from September 30, 2021, and to 120 microns from December 31, 2022, according to the notification published on August 12.
- Manufacturing and use of non-recyclable multi-layered plastic(MLP) to be phased in two years.
- Recover:
- Promotes plastic waste for road construction as per Indian Road Congress guidelines
- Energy recovery, or waste to oil etc. for gainful utilization of waste and also address the waste disposal issue;
- Reduce: In the absence of a suitable alternative(eco-friendly substitute), it is impractical and undesirable to impose a blanket ban on the use of plastic all over the country.
- Central registration system for the registration of the producer/importer/brand owner. The registration should be automated and should take into account ease of doing business for producers, recyclers and manufacturers. It will be evolved by CPCB for the registration of the producer/importer/brand owner.
Importance:
- It is an acknowledgment of the gravity of pollution caused by plastic articles of everyday use, particularly those that have no utility beyond a few minutes or hours.
- In 2018, India won praise globally for asserting on World Environment Day that it would eliminate all single-use plastic by 2022, a theme that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed more than once.
Challenges:
- Policy coherence to achieve the goal has been lacking.
- The Central Pollution Control Board has reported that 22 States have, in the past, announced a ban on single-use plastic, but this has had little impact on the crisis of waste choking wetlands and waterways and being transported to the oceans to turn into microplastic.
- Huge volumes of Plastics:
- At about 34 lakh tonnes generated in 2019-20, India has a staggering annual volume of plastic waste, of which only about 60% is recycled.
- A recent study of the top 100 global producers of polymers that culminate in plastic waste found six of them based in India.
- Poor Policy: India’s policies on environmental regulation are discordant, lofty on intent but feeble on outcomes, and plastic waste is no different. State governments have felt no compulsion to replace municipal contracts, where companies are paid for haulage of mixed waste, with terms that require segregation and accounting of materials.
- Segregation at Source Missing: Considerable amounts of plastic waste cannot be recycled because of lack of segregation, leading to incineration, while mixing newer types of compostable plastic will confound the problem.
- Cross State movement: Patchy regulation has led to prohibited plastic moving across State borders.
- Microplastic is already found in the food chain, and governments must act responsibly to stop the scourge.
International Efforts:
- Support for a UN Plastic Treaty is growing;
- The majority of G7 countries to are supportive of cleaning up the oceans through a charter in the interests of human wellbeing and environmental integrity.
