Biodegradable wisdom

The multinational plastic industry in India contributes over two million tonnes of plastic to our waste stream each year. One billion bottles, food packaging, cement bags, medical disposals, all become waste after being used only once. The Rs 25,000 crore “sunrise” industry, growing at 12-15 per cent annually, hates it if anyone even mentions the words “environmental impact”. They spend time telling schoolchildren how “essential” plastic is and ways in which it has changed our lives for the better. They avoid talking about issues of livelihood of local potters, basket makers, jute farmers and craftsmen now displaced. They also do not talk about cows who choke on plastic bags, or how incinerating chlorinated plastics like PVC leads to some of the most toxic emissions known to man. They resist any moves by the government to impose a collection or recycling tax on them. In short, they run the show. For them environmentalists are just trouble mongers.

Internationally the plastic industry has come under many types of environmental legislation. Laws in Sweden, Norway and Germany have forced packaging manufacturers to collect plastic waste and recycle it. “Producers are responsible,” says the European Union. If you make plastic packaging, then ensure that it does not pollute. However, as a contrast, last year when the government’s Ranganathan Mishra committee tried to have our plastic industry collect its 15,000 tonnes of bottle waste by setting up 1,000 collection centres nationally and paying a measly Rs 0.25 tax, they raised a hue and cry! Even today no one knows the fate of this directive.

So is it enough to say that small thin carry bags are henceforth banned? Instead of taking on plastic as a material, and trying to formulate laws and taxes to manage and minimise the waste from plastic per se, the government is content with this miniscule measure. It is also doubtful if this law itself will work. No small bags? No problem, let’s just use larger ones! The rationale for banning small thin bags is that they do not get collected and recycled. Over 800 small bags make a kilo, which fetches the wastepicker a mere two rupees. How will this change with the slightly larger bags? Collection will still take hours, time better spent garnering more lucrative items like bottles, tumblers and plates. It is unlikely that plastic carry bags will even now be collected instead of ending up in a cow’s belly.