Page 9 - Plastics News June 2021
P. 9

FROM THE EDITOR'S PEN




          The Plastics’Challenge



          With the Environment Day and Ocean Day celebrated world over during the month one could
          hear and read many a celebrities talking about disadvantages or so to say elaborating on the
          harmful effects of Plastics. I wonder how could one easily overlook the fact that Plastics has
          been the savior during the worst ever pandemic of the century.

          Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar announced and launched the “India Plastic
          Challenge-Hackathon 2021” during one such event to spur innovation and entrepreneurship
          in area of tackling plastic waste pollution and elimination of single use plastic.The “India
          Plastic Challenge-Hackathon 2021” as we are told, is a unique competition calling upon start-
          ups/entrepreneurs and students of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to develop innovative
          solutions to mitigate plastic pollution and develop alternatives to single use plastics. According
          to him India is taking all steps to ensure that the country becomes free of single-use plastic
          by 2022.
          To quote the minister “Plastic per se is not a problem, it’s the uncollected plastic waste that’s
          the problem. And their lies the problem – its littering, that’s the problem! We have discussed
          this time and again and in a way we are vindicated.
          Lets for the sake of argument discuss why bans haven’t worked and can’t work. The foremost   Mr. Rajiv B.Tolat
          factor is the lack of alternatives to SUPs and the government’s failure in promoting them.
          Despite the industry agreeing to support government, so far, the thinking within the government
          has been that once the ban is enforced, alternatives would emerge to fill the gap. But this has
          not happened simply because there is no supportive infrastructure and incentive to produce
          alternatives in volume.
          Alternatives have remained a niche business as the government never had a policy to
          mainstream them.
          The unrealistic time frame for phasing out these products is the second important factor for
          the failure. Bans have been imposed either immediately or within few months, providing little
          time to the industry and users to adapt.

          Other important factor is an overreliance on bans while ignoring other instruments such as fiscal
          incentives and disincentives, certification and labelling, and extended producer responsibility.
          With the new draft Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2021, published just before
          the second wave of the pandemic hit the country, it added to worse however, this time as
          well  the story remains the same.

          Experience worldwide shows that a total ban on widely-used products requires an incremental
          approach to change the economy and public behaviour. This is precisely the reason why
          European countries have given themselves at least a decade to eliminate SUPs.  We, on the
          other hand, want to do it in months !

          Our propensity to rely only on command and control to fix environmental problems is taking
          us nowhere. Environment ministry must carefully examine past successes and failures before
          enacting another law to ban SUPs else the industry might be forced to follow the Florida
          model-  Banning the Ban!
                                                                                Rajiv B.Tolat
                                                                                 Hon. Editor
                                                                     publication@aipma.net

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