Today all the countries of the world including India are troubled by plastic waste. Recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also called for a mass movement against plastics from citizens in his Mann Ki Baat program. Since 1950, 8.3 to 9 billion metric tons of plastic have been produced globally, equivalent to more than four Mt Everest of waste. About 44 percent of the total plastic manufactured so far has been made after the year 2000. At the same time, in India, 25,940 tonnes of plastic waste is produced as per the weight of 9 thousand Asiatic elephants. Nevertheless, Indians are among the world’s lowest plastic consumers. An Indian uses an average of 11 kg of plastic a year.
About 40 percent of the plastic produced in the environment is used in packaging, which is used once and then discarded. 79 percent of all plastics produced since 1950 are still present in the environment.
According to the highly damaging United Nations, about 5 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year. Plastic bags are extremely harmful to the environment, sea, and earth living organisms. Interestingly, Bangladesh was the first country to ban plastic bags in 2002. Many African countries have made room for relatively low waste-collection and recycling rates. The US has not yet banned plastic bags, although some of its states have banned the bags themselves.
According to researchers at the University of Georgia, waste-built seas, between 41 million tonnes and 12.7 million tonnes of plastic enters the ocean every year, which is expected to double by 2025.
India waged war on 20 August The Indian Parliament said that it would ban the use of plastic items in the premises. Indian Railways is going to ban single-use plastic from October 2. Both these announcements came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech, in which he urged citizens to give up plastic usage. India has started a movement against plastic.
CPCB’s shocking report
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report assessing adherence to plastic waste management regulations in India was last published for 2017-18. In 2018 its rules were amended. In 2017-18, only 14 states and union territories submitted their annual reports to the CPCB. Out of these 14, 2.06 lakh tonnes of plastic waste is generated every year in Uttar Pradesh. It also had 16 unregistered units of plastic manufacturing and recycling. At the same time, 2.69 lakh tonnes of plastic waste per year was generated in Gujarat.
