Page 41 - Plastics News June 2019

FEATURES

Plastic waste management at crossroads….. What do we do, go from

now……?

DR SAMEER JOSHI, ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE AIPMA our issues are different than the other countries
Padmashri, Dr S Sivaram the former Director of CSIR 1. Awareness of plastic use
National Chemical Laboratory in Pune and an authority 2. Littering habits
on polymers, says that the first step in plastic waste
management is changing the mindset of India’s citizens to 3. infrastructure and mechanism lacking to collect
littering. This is easier than done. The other is the attitude single use plastics
of various stake holders. In spite of the fact that land is 4. Standardization of packaging lacking and their
fast running out in urban India, the urgency for effective recyclability
and long term sustainable solution for MSW disposal in
our cities is not there. One needs fresh thinking to find Plastic bags and wrapping overall have become widely
solutions. India is likely to produce over 500 million tpa accepted. It is approved as a standard (hygienic) packaging
of urban waste by 2050; and 80 % of this will come from material.” Every person who selects single-use products
cities Plastics are the workhorse material of the modern has the obligation to make sure these items are recycled or
economy. disposed of in a trash can and kept out of the environment.
The industry is working to expand our nation’s waste
Their popularity has kept the industry growing for 50 management infrastructure in order to increase access
years, with global production surging from 15 million to recycling and to energy recovery technologies. When
metric tons in 1964 to 311 million metric tons in 2014. If recycled or converted into energy, these items can
business proceeds as usual, this number is projected to continue to make a positive impact on our lives, extending
double to more than 600 million metric tons in the next their life and their value beyond a single use.
20 years. Yet functional benefits come at a price. Plastic
packaging, especially, is the quintessential single-use Plastics are banned in some form or the other in more than
product: it represents a quarter of the total volume of 22 states of india. On the other hand India’s Packaging
plastics, and around 95 percent of the value of plastic- Industry US $ 32 billion in 2015; US $ 73 billion in 2020,
packaging material (worth some $80 billion to $210 billion CAGR 18 %
annually) is lost to the economy. And while it’s intended
useful life is typically less than a year, the material lives
on for centuries.
Consumers benefit from the advantages in cost,
convenience and energy efficiency that single-use items
provide. But using items like plastic shopping bags,
bottles, utensils and straws requires users to commit to
disposing of them properly—whether that means recycling
them or, at the very least, ensuring they make their way
into a proper waste receptacle. When disposed off single
use plastics have smaller environmental footprint than
reusable material. They are also used in medical industry
for their advantages While it’s better for single-use plastic
products to end up in a landfill than to become litter, the
ultimate goal is that all these products can be collected
and converted into energy or recycled. The future of Waste Management – Encouraging, Investing
in Innovations! As an industry that lacks formal ecosystem,
The people of this industry are creating new ways to Waste Management is a space that is awaiting innovations.
address challenges by making it more profitable to recycle There is an imminent need for VC money, Private
a plastic product than it is to litter or landfill it. In India investments to flow in and encourage innovative ideas to

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