Page 26 - Plastics News April 2019

FeAtures

India is Turning Waste into An Opportunity

Bobins Abraham

Over the years, India is emerging as one of the world leaders when it comes to plastic recycling 80 percent of
Plastic Pet bottles,more than Japan, US & Europe

ndia has a huge plastic waste problem - 25,940 tonnes rate of 7.17 percent. To encourage the recycling of the
Ievery day to be exact! Either we can keep complaining domestically produced plastic waste, India had recently
about the piling up of plastic waste on our streets or banned the import of plastic scrap, which the industry had
do something about it. One way to solve the mounting depended on for long, as it was cheaper. But this meant
problem is to turn it into an opportunity. Most of the plastic that a good portion of the plastic waste produced within
waste which is generated can be recycled and can become the country remained uncollected. Those in the industry
raw material for producing anything from containers to believe that a complete ban on imports will result in an
apparels. increase in demand for the plastic scrap collected by
rag-pickers.
One of the keys to maintaining the growth in the recycling
industry is - value addition. "The value of a PET bottle,
post usage is 1 rupee but if we recycle 10 such bottles,
it produces enough fiber to prepare a Rs 500-1,000 worth
high-quality t-shirt. Companies like Adidas, Nike make
athletic merchandise from polyester, which is the same
material used to make plastic bottles,” MB Nirmal, founder
- ExNoRa International, an NGO which focuses on preserving
nature and preventing environmental degradation said.
It seems despite recycling plastics more than its
Over the years, India is emerging as one of the world counterparts India is struggling to manage waste, especially
leaders when it comes to plastic recycling. According to a plastics because we are following a linear economic
study by scientists from Council of Scientific and Industrial model, which is inadequately designed to generate
Research (CSIR) - National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), in
India, 65% of used PET bottles are recycled at registered
facilities, 15% in the unorganized sector and 10% is reused
at homes. This is much higher than the recycling rate for
PET in Japan which is 72.1%, Europe which recycles 48.3%
and the US where just 31% is recycled and reused.
The consistent growth of the recycling industry also helps
in creating much-needed jobs. “The Indian recycle industry
employees close to 4 million people, directly or indirectly.
Since plastic, especially PET bottles attract high recycling
price, it is one of the best ways of income generation for a
variety of people attached to the industry from rag pickers waste. We need a shift towards a circular economy which
to the recyclers," Sachin Sharma, Director of Delhi-based substitutes the ‘end-of-life’ concept with the renovation,
GEM Recycling said. eliminates toxic chemicals from manufacturing which
impacts reusability, and aims for the abolition of waste by
By 2025, India’s waste management sector is expected
to be worth US$13.62 billion with an annual growth introducing innovations in the design of products/system.

Plastics News April 2019 26