Government’s Initiative in Plastic Waste Management in India, Booming Businesses, and Future Plans.
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, on March 11, 2021, had granted the Draft Plastic Waste Management Rules, calling for a few changes in the area of handling its plastic waste.
The amendment had included a new definition of-
- Plastic waste processing
- Single-use plastic item
- Non-woven plastic bag
- Thermoplastic
- Thermoset plastic
And it had extended the applicability of the rules to the plastic waste processor, co-processor, brand-owner, including the recycler, etc.
The draft also formulated a ban on the import, manufacture, stocking, sale, distribution and use of specific single-use plastic from January 1, 2022. These included thermocol (extended polystyrene) for decoration, plastic sticks for balloons, candy sticks, plastic flags, and ice-cream sticks.
The Union ministry also had proposed an increase in the thickness of the carry bags made of virgin plastic, and the microns are to be raised from 50 microns to 120 microns.
Plastic Waste Management In India
Extrapolation of plastic waste generation has shown that around 25,940 tons of plastic waste per day are generated in India. (The data was collected from 60 major cities).
According to the Central Pollution Control Board’s 2018-19 report, around 3.3 million metric tons of plastic waste were generated in India only that year.
In 2011, Plastic Waste Management legislation was passed to manage plastic waste in India, and several amendments followed after that. However, still in 2021, most parts of the country lack organizing efforts to mitigate the risks associated with plastic wastes.
The state of the county started providing data on waste management from 2018-19 only. There has been a lack of concern, awareness, motivation, and obedience among the citizens as the legal obligations had been reduced to a mere formality by the Government in the area of plastic waste management till now.
Plastic Waste Management Business in India
With the severe measures taken by the Government towards the Plastic Management Waste in India, the plastics recycling market is calculated to grow at a rate of 6.5%, attaining the market size of 53.72 billion US Dollars, by the end of 2024.
Brands are finally taking immediate actions to reduce the use of single-use plastic in their companies and setting up an eco-friendly approach in their work, to attract customers while also jumping on the new trend of being cleaner than the competition.
This push towards taking urgent actions towards cleaner word ethics and environment-friendly approach has created an opportunistic market for new startups to boom in making cash out of trash in India.
“India accounted for nearly three million metric tonnes of e-waste in 2018, and the nation has a recycling capacity of only five percent of this amount.” said Raj Kumar, the Founder of Deshwal Waste Management. Kumar saw the opportunity among the increasing junk in the country and has invested around Rs 15 crore into his business, expecting a turnover of Rs 23 crore for 2018-19.
THE CRISIS OF PLASTIC WASTE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA
Deluxe Recycling is another business situated in Mumbai that provides environment-friendly dunnage options to various companies, organizations, and industries. The company’s turnover is around Rs 40 crore per annum, with more increase estimated.
Packman Packaging, founded by Gaurav Jalan, works on plastic wastes used in our day-to-day lives. This company supplies eco-friendly (biodegradable) packing to reputed companies like Flipkart, Amazon India, Samsung, Bosch, and more.
The materials used in the packaging of the company comes from recycled paper, food quality paper, and biodegradable paper. Said the founder in an interview, adding the use of corns in the recycle businesses while talking about the company’s annual turnover of Rs 20-crore.
The All India Plastics Manufacturers’ Association had affirmed that the increasing demand from various sectors is likely to lead to substantial growth in the investments in new technologies for recycling and Plastic Waste Management, and it indeed did.
Several growing small businesses and profiting big corporations are establishing their foundation around the recycling and plastic waste management business in India.
Future plans by the Government for the Plastic Waste Management
Plastic Waste Management Programme (2018-2024)
Every year, India generates 15 million tonnes of plastic waste, but only a small portion is recycled due to the lack of a functional solid waste management system, leading to a significant burden on the landfills and the socio-economic conditions of the waste pickers are primarily women.
UNDP in India with Implementing partner of United Nations Development Programme, supported by United Nations Volunteers, United Nations Development Pro, Coca Cola Company, The Coca-cola Foundation, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Government Of Uttarakhand, Charities Aid, Foundation India, and CSR Trust For SDGs In India has accumulated a total amount of 9,869,272 US Dollars to build a system in that country that will help in reducing the impact of plastic waste on the environment.
This partnership aims in shifting the socio-technical model for taking plastic waste management in the country from informal economy to the formal economy. This includes-
- Establishing Material Recovery Centers for sustained practices in waste management.
- Institutionalization of Swachhta Kendras within the framework of the Government.
- Creating structured and improved socio-economic conditions for the waste pickers.
- Developing technology-supported knowledge management.
- Promote cloud-based traceability, digital governance, and accountability.
