Plastic waste in India is collected mostly by ragpickers, rather than the authorities; 68% of the plastic waste generated in India is unaccounted for
India’s plastic waste nightmare is because the country is not properly collecting and recycling the trash, thus leading to lethal plastic pollution, according to a new report by Delhi-based think-tank, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
The country lays a lot of emphasis on waste management in official policy. But authorities have not understood the process properly enough, according to The Plastic Life-Cycle.
The document highlighted that unless the entire life cycle of plastic — from source to disposal — is not together considered as the root cause of the pollution it causes, the problem is not going away.
Currently though, the focus is entirely on downstream issues related to collection, management, diversion and disposal of plastic waste.
The report was released at a one-day National Conclave in New Delhi’s India Habitat Centre November 22, 2022.
Management of plastic waste involves two distinct steps: collection and recycling or end-of-life disposal. Both are not executed properly in India, according to the CSE report.
The collection of plastic waste is the responsibility of local government bodies, producers, importers and brand owners. However, the ground reality is entirely different.
“As high as 42-86 per cent of the plastic waste in India flows through the informal sector to material recovery facilities operated by multinational corporations in partnership with local governments or otherwise,” according to the report.
Also, brand owners outsource the work of waste collection and recycling to third parties and exempt themselves of taking responsibility for their actions.
Similarly, the recycling aspect of plastic waste management is also muddled.
The Indian government claims that the country is recycling 60 per cent of its plastic waste. However, this is limited to specific types of polymers (plastics) like PET bottles.
“As per a statistical analysis done by CSE using CPCB’s data, India is merely recycling (through mechanical recycling) 12 per cent of its plastic waste.
Close to 20 per cent of this waste is channelised for end-of-life solutions like co-incineration, plastic-to-fuel and road making, which means we are burning 20 per cent of our plastic waste and still calling it ‘recycling’. Sixty-eight per cent of the plastic waste is unaccounted for,” the report noted.
The document urged that brands should be mandated to have a proactive disclosure policy to continually report the amount of plastics put out by them in the market each year.
“The amount of plastic they collect back and send for recycling and burning should also be made available in the public domain,” it said.
It also called on the government to include the informal sector in the formal value chain of plastic waste management and protect it from the rapid privatisation of plastic waste management services.
This is the fourth of a seven-part series based on a CSE report released November 22, 2022 at India Habitat Centre
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