India in favour of ‘regulating’, not banning, single-use plastic

India in favour of ‘regulating’, not banning, single-use plastic

Subject: Environment

Sec: Pollution

Context: Ahead of week-long negotiations involving 192 countries that are expected to begin in Toronto, Canada, next week on getting the globe to progress on eliminating plastic pollution, India is in favour of “regulating”, and not eliminating, single-use plastic, according to an analysis of various countries’ public negotiating positions by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a not-for-profit based in New Delhi.

Details:

In 2022, India brought into effect the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules (2021) that banned 19 categories of ‘single-use plastics’

Single Use Plastics

• Single-use plastics, or disposable plastics, are used only once before they are thrown away or recycled.
• Plastic is so cheap and convenient that it has replaced all other materials from the packaging industry but it takes hundreds of years to disintegrate.
• If we look at the data, out of46 million tonnes of plastic waste generated every year in our country, 43% is single use plastic.
• Further, Petroleum-based plastic is non biodegradable and usually goes into a landfill where it is buried or it gets into the water and finds its way into the ocean.
• The Prime Minister of India was also conferred the “champions of the earth” award by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2018 for pledging to eliminate all single-use plastic by 2022.
• These are defined as disposable goods that are made with plastic but are generally use-and-throw after a single use and include plastic cups, spoons, earbuds, decorative thermocol, wrapping or packaging fillm used to cover sweet boxes and cigarette packets, and plastic cutlery. It, however, does not include plastic bottles – even those less than 200 ml— and multi-layered packaging boxes (such as milk cartons).

Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021

• Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021 amend the 2016 rules.
• The manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of the identified single-use plastic will be prohibited with effect from the 1st July, 2022.
• The ban will not apply to commodities made of compostable plastic.
• For banning other plastic commodities in the future, other than those that have been listed in this notification, the government has given industry ten years from the date of notification for compliance.
• The permitted thickness of the plastic bags, currently 50 microns, will be increased to 75 microns from 30th September, 2021, and to 120 microns from the 31st December, 2022.
• Plastic bags with higher thickness are more easily handled as waste and have higher recyclability.
• Currently, the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, prohibits manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of carry bags and plastic sheets less than 50 microns in thickness in the country.
• The Central Pollution Control Board, along with state pollution bodies, will monitor the ban, identify violations, and impose penalties already prescribed under the Environmental Protection Act, 1986.
• The plastic packaging waste, which is not covered under the phase out of identified single use plastic items, shall be collected and managed in an environmentally sustainable way through the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) of the Producer, importer and Brand owner (PIBO), as per Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.