22/10/2019 - Environment | GS III

IAS Parliament 4 years

KEY POINTS

· Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rules, 2016, with specific obligations for every stakeholder in the plastic supply-chain, including the extended producer responsibility (EPR) for producers, importers, brand owners.

· The Solid Waste Management Rules (SWM Rules), 2016, also have provisions for plastic waste, including EPR.

· But there is a difference in EPR provisions under SWM Rules and PWM Rules. SWM Rules say that manufacturers/brand-owners shall provide financial assistance to local authorities for establishing waste management systems to fulfil their EPR.

· PWM Rules, however, don’t mention the financial contribution to local authorities. Instead, these direct manufacturers/brand-owners to collect waste through their distribution channel or the local body concerned.

· The Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016, mandated phase-out of chlorinated plastic bags, gloves and blood bags within two years. This has not happened.

· With respect to state regulations banning single-use plastics (SUP), states have a different definition of what constitutes SUP.

· The problem is with regulations, and with consumer awareness and industry’s status-quo approach. Consumer apathy is at the core of the problem.

· Big companies outsource their EPRs to plastic recycling organisations (PROs), which are supposed to collect plastic wastes on behalf of the companies and send them for recycling.

· A fundamental mistake we are doing is by separating plastic waste management from the wider municipal waste management.

· Proper plastic waste management will only happen if there is good municipal waste management. EPR provisions will have to be designed for this reality.

Steps needed

· To increase recycling, we must improve segregation of waste at source and improve the collection and transportation of segregated wastes. Currently, the unsegregated waste contains a lot of contaminated plastics.

· Similarly, as MLPs contain several polymers, they can’t be recycled. At best, they can be incinerated in cement plants, used as a refuse-derived fuel (RFD), used in road construction or for making down-cycled products.

· It is essential to understand that a plastic product cannot be recycled forever. As plastics are produced from hydrocarbons, at some point they have to be either incinerated in cement or power plants or used to recover oil or dumped in the landfill or used for producing some long-lasting products.

· There are obvious environmental benefits of using plastics in road construction. Studies show that the life of the road is enhanced and the maintenance requirement is reduced. But, ultimately, plastic fibres, either as micro-plastics or in some other form, will eventually move out of the road into the environment.