Plastic Pollution
The 5th of June is globally recognized as the World Environment Day, with this year’s theme as “Beat Plastic Pollution.” And this year, the honor of hosting the world meeting was with India. To give a running start to this theme, Our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi vowed to curb the use of all single-use plastic by the year 2022.
India produces almost 26000 tonnes of plastic daily, out of which very little is recycled and the rest ends up in landfills and oceans, even ending up in the food chain of all sorts of creatures and causing untimely death, and polluting groundwater through leaching, increasing flooding by blocking drainage, etc. Estimates suggest that almost 9 billion tons of plastic have been produced globally since the 1950s, and since it takes a 1000 years for plastic to decompose, the remains are still lying around at the bottom of the ocean.
The reason plastic is so widely used is because of the ease with which it can be manufactured and at a nearly minimal cost, and also because of its waterproof nature. Thus it may be difficult to completely banish it but it’s feasible to curtail its production along with promoting recycling.
India already has an action plan ready in the form of the Plastic waste management Rule 2016, besides which a system must be in place that will assist in segregating the plastic at the source. Even Swachh Bharat Abhiyan can tie in. The layman is the most important cog in this machinery, thus there needs to be a mechanism for disseminating this knowledge and promoting behavioral change.
Jute bags can be a viable alternative, providing the added benefit of generating employment.
18 Indian states are in various stages of banning plastic already. Let us remember that this is our own planet we have to take care of, and if not us, who? If not now, when?
India produces almost 26000 tonnes of plastic daily, out of which very little is recycled and the rest ends up in landfills and oceans, even ending up in the food chain of all sorts of creatures and causing untimely death, and polluting groundwater through leaching, increasing flooding by blocking drainage, etc. Estimates suggest that almost 9 billion tons of plastic have been produced globally since the 1950s, and since it takes a 1000 years for plastic to decompose, the remains are still lying around at the bottom of the ocean.
The reason plastic is so widely used is because of the ease with which it can be manufactured and at a nearly minimal cost, and also because of its waterproof nature. Thus it may be difficult to completely banish it but it’s feasible to curtail its production along with promoting recycling.
India already has an action plan ready in the form of the Plastic waste management Rule 2016, besides which a system must be in place that will assist in segregating the plastic at the source. Even Swachh Bharat Abhiyan can tie in. The layman is the most important cog in this machinery, thus there needs to be a mechanism for disseminating this knowledge and promoting behavioral change.
Jute bags can be a viable alternative, providing the added benefit of generating employment.
18 Indian states are in various stages of banning plastic already. Let us remember that this is our own planet we have to take care of, and if not us, who? If not now, when?
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