In a sea of plastic…

Over 500 billion plastic bags are used globally, which means 1 million bags are being used per minute. With 400 million tonnes of plastic produced every year worldwide, less than 10 per cent is recycled. An estimated 23 million tonnes end up in lakes, rivers and seas annually. Yes, the facts are shocking!

India banned single use plastics in 2022. Yet it doesn’t seem to have trickled down into the society. A small walk down the road, and at every nook and corner, one can see plastic bags freely available. These plastics are hard to collect and process and they easily mix with compostable waste and leech into the soil. India’s net generation of single-use plastic waste is 5.6 MMT.

In India, small traders find the sustainable alternatives costlier. The government should look to intervene in this. The case is a bit different in large department stores. They do offer paper bags and other alternatives, but if one is a regular shopper in the store, they end up accumulating paper bags in hordes. The basis to sustainability is lesser consumption. Single use of anything, be it paper or plastic, is dangerous to earth. Lesser consumption and reusing for circularity needs to be pushed. Traders must be incentivised to follow these and at the same time source segregation and garbage handling must be strengthened across the country. Compared to several countries, India’s per capita consumption of plastic is low. This needs to be nipped in the bud, else handling the world’s most populous country’s waste would be an unimaginable daunting task.