Editorial: Ambivalence over plastic ban

Modi called for an end to plastic in his 2019 I-Day speech and in his Mann ki Baat, but similar enthusiasm has not shown in implementation

Despite lofty pronouncements on plastic bans, the NDA government’s performance on the ground leaves a lot to be desired. At last week’s meeting of the intergovernmental negotiating committee formed by the United Nations Environment Assembly, India took a bafflingly contradictory stance to finalize an international treaty to decisively end plastic pollution. Instead of advocating a positive approach to the issue, the country’s representative called for a “consensus” approach, a euphemism for excessively protracted treaties. In 2016, India introduced plastic waste rules with ambitious targets, such as phasing out multi-layer plastics within two years. In 2018, the government said it would phase out all single-use plastics by 2022. But in 2019, the center downplayed that commitment in a submission to the United Nations. It also watered down plastic waste rules and effectively rolled back its proposed multi-layered plastic ban. In 2022, a ban on certain single-use plastic items, such as straws and spoons, goes into effect. While this has been hailed as a major ban, in reality, it targets 2-3% of the total plastic volume and does not touch the plastic used by major companies. After the first meeting of the intergovernmental negotiating committee, countries were asked to submit written proposals on the text of the treaty. Sixty-seven countries submitted submissions. But India is not among them. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for an end to plastic in his 2019 Independence Day speech and in his Mann ki Baat radio broadcast. However, similar enthusiasm has not been reflected in the implementation. The center will ban single-use plastics as one of its environmental achievements.

Regulating the production of plastics – and thus pricing them – is widely considered the best way to control their use and stimulate innovation in alternative materials. But this is where India seems to be stumbling. India generates nearly 26,000 tons of plastic waste every day, and another 10,000 tons go uncollected. The rest ends up in landfills or in the natural environment; most plastic waste ends up in the ocean. Plastic waste more than doubled from 2015-16. It is feared that by 2050 there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean. Due to the lack of segregation, a large portion of plastic waste cannot be recycled. Weak regulation prevents banned plastics from freely crossing national borders. According to a study, six out of 100 polymer producers in the world that end up generating plastic waste are located in India. The lack of a unified policy on the separation, collection and recycling of plastics is a major obstacle to eliminating single-use plastics. Plastic waste is known to damage land and water resources, exacerbate flooding and contribute to climate change. As the world’s most populous country, India is vulnerable to all of this.