India among the 12 countries responsible for 52% of the world’s mismanaged plastic waste: Report

Subject: ENVIRONEMNT

Section :Pollution

Context:

On July 28, 2023, the Earth saw its first Plastic Overshoot Day: The point at which the amount of plastics exceeds the global waste management capacity, according to Swiss-based research consultancy Earth Action (EA).

Details:

Report: 2023 Plastic Overshoot Day
Published by: Earth Action (EA)
Major finding:
- Nearly 68,642,999 tonnes of additional plastic waste will end up in nature this year.
- India is among the 12 countries, along with China, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, Mexico, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran and Kazakhstan, which are responsible for 52 per cent of the world’s mismanaged plastic waste.
- The researchers categorised countries into 10 archetypes to carry out the analysis: The transactors, the self-sustainers, the strugglers, the overloaders, the toxic exporters, the waste saviours, the waste sponges, the selective exporters, the exporting polluters and the small-scale inward polluters.
- Among these, plastic pollution particularly impacts developing countries without mature waste management systems, including India. These countries have been categorised as ‘waste sponges’.
  - Waste sponges have a low plastic consumption yet a high level of plastic pollution.
Report suggestions:
- Strict adherence to the Extended producer responsibility (EPR)
- Phase out of plastics which are not designed for circular use.

Increased plastic pollution:

The imbalance between the volumes of plastic that are produced and used, as well as the world’s ability to manage those volumes when they become waste, is the root cause of plastic pollution. The gap in waste management capacity and plastic consumption is called Mismanaged Waste Index (MWI).
Under current scenarios, despite pledges and increased waste management capacity, increased production of plastics will lead to global plastics pollution tripling by 2040.
Of the 159 million tonnes of plastics (which can be used only for a short time) to be produced globally in 2023, 43 per cent (68.5 million tonnes) will end up causing pollution.
Plastic Overshoot Day (28 July 2023) is four days ahead of Earth Overshoot Day (2 August 2023).

Per Capita plastic consumption:

Highest in Iceland, with annual consumption of 128.9 kg per person.
This is 24.3 times higher than the yearly consumption per person of 5.3 kg in India.
The global average consumption of plastic per person per year is 20.9 kg.
Overshoot Day for India, or the date when the amount of plastic waste outweighed the country’s ability to manage it, was January 6 2023. Plastic Overshoot Day is determined based on a country’s Mismanaged Waste Index (MWI).
Three countries (followed by India) with the highest mismanaged waste — Mozambique (99.8 per cent), Nigeria (99.44 per cent) and Kenya (98.9 per cent) — belong to Africa.
India ranks fourth in the MWI, with 98.55 per cent of generated waste being mismanaged and fares poorly in the management of plastics waste.

Criticism of the report:

The report does not mention the source of the information that it has published especially with respect to the mismanaged waste index of India.
According to CSE’s report, The Plastic Life Cycle, India recycles 12.3 per cent of its plastic waste and incinerates 20 per cent.
The centralised EPR portal developed by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change also suggests India has a cumulative capacity to process 14.2 million tonnes of plastic waste annually. This includes recycling and incineration, indicating that the country has the capacity to process 71 per cent of all the primary plastic that is produced.

UN Plastic Treaty:

In March 2022, UNGA adopted the Global Treaty to end plastic pollution by 2040.
The UNEA resolution 5/14 titled “End plastic pollution: Towards an international legally binding instrument” calls for the international legally binding instrument to promote a comprehensive lifecycle approach to chemicals and waste through sustainable production and consumption of plastics by adopting sound product design, and environment-friendly waste management.