It’s hard to imagine today, but four or five decades ago, plastic was perceived as an eco-friendly alternative. Paper bags and wooden chairs meant pulpy vegetation and the guilt of axed trees, while polythene carry-bags and polypropylene furniture were presented as markers of modern life, their inputs derived from oil. What that synthetic push failed to predict was a massive invasion of our lives. Worse yet, with nuclear power, very little attention was paid to waste disposal, resulting in us now having entire ecosystems at risk of being suffocated by materials that refuse to mix back into nature. Ecologists warn of marine species killed by microplastics and other waste if there is no reduction in the vast amounts of plastics we use and throw away regularly decimating our planet. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) places annual plastic production at around 400 million tonnes per year; Of what has been built so far, only 12% was burned and only 9% was recycled. According to another estimate, more than 300 million tonnes are dumped as waste every year, with India being among the top three generators of plastic waste along with China and the US.
Our ban on disposable plastics is set to begin from July 1, India’s Central Pollution Control Board has set out to ban the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution and sale of single-use items that are not biodegradable. Let’s use a class of inputs infamous for . A notification in this regard was issued by the Center last August, but the abundance of plastics used and scattered around us is so slow that a drastic change is now inevitable. Some manufacturers of low-cost tetrapack beverages also sought relief on the plea that paper straws were too expensive. Since cost efficiency was never the point of the switch, it is easy to dismiss such Strawman petitions. Much of the success of plastics is based on its cheapness, thanks to the economies of scale provided by industrial units that use hydrocarbon feedstocks to produce diverse polymers. Given the magnitude of the installed capacity we have, few other products are quite cheap or convenient. It also explains the emphasis on recycling. Without an alternative, plastics cannot be completely phased out.
The reality of the appeal of plastics should alert us to concerns about leaks of our ban. Goods that are cheap and useful can be ‘addictive’ in terms of market behavior. Therefore, unless our supply restrictions go hand-in-hand with demand compressors, the incentive to defy regulations will continue, which could adversely affect results. In a country with a large informal sector and a poor record on compliance, a squeeze on just one end may not be enough. We will need a comprehensive approach change to play a major role. For this we have to run a campaign that reaches far and wide, whose aim is to subject the use of disposable plastic to social disdain at every level. Globally, UNEP has put its weight behind “plastic is forever”, a slogan that runs on an ad-line posted to promote diamonds. While it is tempting enough to focus on how long it takes for plastic to decompose among people somewhat aware of the problem, the issues in India are unlikely to go away without an adequate description. Our local initiatives so far have included events like the “Hackathon” held last summer, when plastic carry bags less than 50 microns in thickness were banned to talk about diseases caused by poly waste. However, little has changed materially over the course of the year. Supply-side action was necessary, but let’s not rely on just one action.