Page 29 - Plastics News September 2019

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is that by banning plastic bags and swapping them for
paper or cotton bags, we will be doing more damage to
the environment and exacerbating climate change. Think
of the trees that must be cut, the water and energy that
must be used to make these alternatives.
Segregation

How can one push for recycling and better dry waste
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Bharat Mission 2.0 is not pushing much for segregation.
Imposing a ban is not the whole solution. However, if
cities segregate waste into three fractions – wet, dry, and
domestic hazardous waste -- and then the dry fraction is
are remunerative for rag pickers as they are in demand further sorted, and if municipalities create infrastructure
at recycling facilities. in terms of material recovery facilities or sorting stations,
dry waste can be sorted into over 70-80 fractions. This then
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this has also brought plastics into the national spotlight. has value and a market and would not end up as litter.
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or bad are going on, it is important to know the extent of source segregate end to end. Also, recycling as a silver
WKH SUREOHP LQ WKH ÀUVW SODFH $V SHU D DVVHVVPHQW bullet solution will not work unless there are technological
by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), 6.92% of interventions to make it sustainable.
WKH PXQLFLSDO VROLG ZDVWH 06: LQ WKH FRXQWU\ FRPSULVHV :RXOG DGG WR 8QHPSOR\PHQW
RI SODVWLF ZDVWH :LWK H[WUDSRODWLRQ RI WKH SODVWLF ZDVWH A bigger debate over the SUP ban issue is on the fact that
generation data from 60 major cities, this study estimates.
more than a million workers will lose jobs. As per a 2018
:KDW IUDFWLRQ RI RXU SODVWLF ZDVWH LV VLQJOH XVH SODVWLFV" estimate, there are over 3,500-plus organized recycling
:KDW SDUW RI WKLV IUDFWLRQ LV SDFNDJLQJ ZDVWH FXWOHU\ units and over 4,000 unorganized units. Approximately, six
LWHPV FDUU\ EDJV 3(7 ERWWOHV HWF" 7KHVH DUH VRPH RI WKH lakh workers are directly employed and another 10 lakh
numbers we need in order to assess the scale of such waste are informal workers. This is a critical number, and there
as well as look for clear alternatives for such plastics. needs to be a clear roadmap on how these workers would
There needs to be an initiative at the level of the states be transitioned to any other industry. Also, a phased ban
to push cities to make inventories of their dry waste, on items could be explored. Depending on the terms of
considering that the composition of our waste has changed the ban, a large part of existing investments, machinery,
drastically with more plastics in the last several years. business processes and jobs in the plastics industry will
Only then can we identify which are the most problematic EH GHVWUR\HG %XVLQHVVHV ZLOO ÀQG WKHPVHOYHV VWXFN ZLWK
SUPs and assess the extent of their impact before imposing proscribed equipment and will have to incur additional
bans. Such a study has not been done so far. costs to replace old machinery. Big companies might be
able to afford the additional capital required, but small
After Bengaluru banned plastic bags a couple of years
ago, grocery stores have started offering light cotton bags DQG PHGLXP HQWHUSULVHV ZLOO ÀQG LW D ORW PRUH GLIÀFXOW
that are priced at Rs 10 or more. To achieve the same This, at a time when there is an overall credit crunch in
environmental impact as the plastic bag, though, a cotton the economy.
bag would have to be used 7,100 times. If you are hyper Alternative
woke and prefer organic cotton bags, you would have to
use it 20,000 times to match the ecological footprint of Presently, some items do have alternatives. For instance,
the ‘evil’ plastic bag. straws, we can easily do away with the straw culture.
According to the industry body FICCI, 42% of plastic waste
:KLOH WKH WUDGLWLRQDO ,QGLDQ VHQVLELOLW\ OHDGV XV WR UHXVH is multi-layered packaging. However, systems to segregate
bags, one cannot think how anyone can reuse a paper bag and collect multi-layered packaging can be channelized
WLPHV RU D FRWWRQ EDJ WLPHV :KDW WKLV PHDQV for co-processing, making laminates or making roads and

29 September 2019 Plastics News