SINGLE-USE PLASTIC: INDIAN STATE GOVERNMENTAL POLICIES

August 14, 2022
By Tribesforgood
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The Role of Plastic In Waste Management

Waste management can be defined as the collection, transportation, and disposal of waste along with its monitoring and regulation.

In the current day and age, with people using numerous disposable products on a day-to-day basis, waste production has drastically increased leading to a host of issues. If this waste is disposed of in landfills, it will decompose unnaturally and will take a lot of time. Waste management allows users to efficiently and properly dispose of all kinds of waste. Moreover, such waste management is crucial as it saves the environment from the toxic effects of inorganic and non-biodegradable elements present in such waste. Mismanagement of waste, on the other hand, can cause water and air contamination as well as soil erosion. 

While there are different kinds of waste which add to environmental problems, plastic waste makes up a significant portion. Human beings produce 300 million tons of plastic each year worldwide, half of which consists of single-use plastic. That is nearly equivalent to the weight of the entire human population. Single-use plastic (SUP), or disposable plastic, refers to any plastic item that is used once, and then thrown in the trash as the name suggests. SUPs are more common than one might think and are used for packaging and service ware, such as bottles, wrappers, straws, and bags. Our reliance on SUPs means we are accumulating waste at a staggering rate. Reports tell us that 90% of plastic is never recycled after it is discarded. The rest is either burned or dumped. When not recycled or disposed of in a controlled manner, discarded plastic waste generates greenhouse gas emissions when exposed to solar radiation both in the air and water, which contributes to climate change. Adding to such problems, SUPs are made primarily from fossil fuel-based chemicals and so break down into micro-particles that contaminate our environment. All of this is proof that tackling plastic waste is crucial to reduce the adverse impacts of waste on our environment and on climate change as a whole. 

Research Methodology 

As a part of our project at TribesforGOOD, we students undertook secondary research to understand different Indian state governmental policies and laws related to single-use plastic. We researched complete and partial bans of plastic in each state. We also looked at some campaigns launched by private organisations in collaboration with the governments of some states to minimise plastic use.

Initiatives Taken By State Governments

Given the rising menace of single-use plastic, the Indian government banned single-use plastic on July 1, 2022. The manufacturing, importation, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of single-use plastic, including products made of polystyrene, was declared as prohibited in all of India (as stated by the environment ministry). While this has been a recent development, other Indian states have already implemented policies around SUPs in the past. 

Reiterating the government’s resolution to phase out certain single-use plastic items, Union Environment Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar said that “though plastic was a useful 20th-century innovation, uncollected plastic waste has emerged as a serious threat to the environment. Considering the adverse impacts of littered single-use plastic items on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi gave a clarion call to phase out single-use plastics by 2022, and the government has taken effective measures to manage plastic waste”. 

On January 21, 2019, the ministry had issued the Standard Guidelines for Single-Use Plastic. It was issued to all the states, union territories and central ministries for eliminating the use of SUPs. Prahlad Singh Patel, the Union Minister with Independent Charge of Culture and Tourism, also added that single-use plastic would be prohibited from being used within a 100m radius of all Indian culture and heritage monuments.

Himachal Pradesh, for instance, was the first state in the country to ban the use of plastic bags in 2009. Since then, the state government has been making efforts to reduce plastic waste in the towns and rural areas of the state. After this, more states began implementing the ban and so, the sale, usage, and production of plastic bags was entirely prohibited in Maharashtra, making it the 18th state to do so. Among the other states that had enacted a complete prohibition are Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, and Uttar Pradesh. 

Apart from this, partial plastic bans were implemented in Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Odisha, and West Bengal, usually in the vicinity of sacred sites or during the pilgrimage season. These states had partial bans on manufacturing, stock, import, transport, sale and use of disposable plastic. 

Additionally, the government of Tamil Nadu announced on 3rd September 2021 that plastic things under 75 microns would not be used starting from 30th September 2021. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu made an announcement in the Assembly on June 5 2018 that there would be a ban on the consumption of throwaway or single-use plastics. From January 1st 2019, action was taken by establishing a special committee of the Committee on Plastic Free City and concluded with the prohibition of plastic below 50 microns with effect from 1 August, 2019. 

The Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD), on the other hand, aimed at tackling plastic waste through campaigning. The plastic-free Dehradun campaign aimed at reaching about 25,000 students and their parents to raise awareness against the usage of single-use plastics. The corporation started this campaign to increase citizen participation under Swachh Survekshan 2022. The officials said that this campaign, which ran across the city till April 30, focused mainly on raising awareness among locals about the segregation of garbage, adopting composting at the domestic level and the basic etiquette one must follow to keep the city clean. Students of over 100 schools, marked by the MCD, participated in the campaign and were able to achieve their goals.

Apart from all these states, India’s largest state in terms of GDP and home to the country’s financial capital, Mumbai, joined the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) to advance regional efforts to fight plastic pollution. The partnership looks at bringing together Maharashtra’s leading policy-makers, business leaders, civil society organisations and experts to formulate a state-level plan to eradicate plastic pollution.

Conclusion

From the secondary research undertaken, we see that many states and union territories have completely or partially banned single-use or disposable plastics in order to help the environment. One of the first states to do so was Himachal Pradesh. Later, other states such as Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, and Uttar Pradesh followed. Along the lines of the partial ban, states such as Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Odisha, and West Bengal implemented laws specifically around sacred sights or during the pilgrimage season. Though there have been actions taken, we still need to be a plastic-free country which would mean that we would have to control and resume the amount of plastic that is consumed and manufactured. Additionally, there needs to be a focus on raising awareness among citizens and making sure that the policies already in place are being implemented in the states for them to have the desired impact and reduce environmental damage. 

References 

Authors

Ahaan Gala, Grade 9 Oberoi International school, Mumbai

Vihaan Motwani, Grade 12 Shiv Nadar School, Gurgaon

Gayatri Seth Grade 9, Delhi Public School, Ludhiana

Akshan Mohaney Grade 11, Lilavatibai Podar High School

The authors are TribesforGOOD students working on tackling climate change through the Global Challenges & Social Justice program.

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