Substitute for Single Use plastics
- September 19, 2021
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Substitute for Single Use plastics
Subject – Environment
Context – IISc researchers find a way to substitute for singleuse plastics
Concept –
- According to a report by Central Pollution Control Board of India, for the year 2018-2019, 3.3 million metric tonnes of plastic waste are generated by Indians.
- Another alarming statistic is that of all the plastic waste produced in the world, 79% enters the environment. Only 9% of all plastic waste is recycled.
- Researchers from Department of Material Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru (IISc) have found a way to make a substitute for single-use plastic that can, in principle help mitigate the problem of accumulating plastic waste in the environment.
- Researchers developed polymers using non-edible oil and cellulose extracted from agricultural stubble. These polymers can be moulded into sheets having properties suitable for making bags, cutlery or containers. The material so made is bio-degradable, leak-proof and non-toxic.
- Non-edible Castor oil was used in this process of making the polymer which involves allowing them to react with the cellulose and di-isocyanate compound.
- The sheets of polymer made were subjected to a leaching test and were also tested for thermal stability and were found to hold against the tests. These preliminary tests suggest that the material can be used for food packaging.
- In order to obtain sheets with properties like flexibility suitable for making different articles, the researchers played with the proportions of cellulose to non-edible oil. The more cellulose they added, and less non-edible oil, the stiffer was the material, so that it was more suitable to making tumblers and cutlery. The greater the proportion of oil, the more flexible was the material and it could be moulded into sheets for making bags
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.
- Pollution due to single use plastic items has become an important environmental challenge confronting all countries and India is committed to take action for mitigation of pollution caused by littered Single Use Plastics.
- 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.
To know about Plastic waste management amendment rules 2021, please click here.