Plastic Waste and it’s Management.

In current situation plastics demands have been increased tremendously. Due to its easy convenience, the usage has reached a great height, and reports say that it’s furthermore going to increase.

Plastic is used across almost every sector, including to produce packaging, in building and construction, in textiles, consumer products, transportation, electrical and electronics and industrial machinery.

While talking about India, As much as 3.3 million metric tonnes of plastic waste was generated in 2018-19, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report 2018-19. This roughly translated to 9,200 tonnes a day (TPD). India generates nearly 26,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day, making it the 15th biggest plastic polluter globally. (Quartz India)

Let’s first discuss about the impacts of plastics on living organism as well as the whole environment,

1. Toxic chemicals leach out of plastic and are found in the blood and tissue of nearly all of us. Exposure to them is linked to cancers, birth defects, impaired immunity, endocrine disruption and other ailments.

2.Plastic pollution causes harm to humans, animals and plants through toxic pollutants. It can take hundreds or even thousands of years for plastic to break down so the environmental damage is long-lasting. It affects all organisms in the food chain from tiny species like plankton through to whales.

3. Plastic also contributes to global warming.Almost all plastics are made from chemicals that come from the production of planet-warming fuels (gas, oil and even coal).

4. Also recycling process of plastic is only found in cities and due to this reason rural areas get fills up with the waste. Resulting in various diseases among locals.

With the formal and informal sector failing to collect plastic waste the packaging and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe industry are growing at 16–18% per year. The demand of plastic goods is increasing from household use to industrial applications. It is growing at a rate of 22% annually. The polymers production has reached the 8.5 million tons in 2007.

What’s the reason behind huge number of plastics found in India? It’s because only 9 per cent of the total plastic waste in the world is recycled. A Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report (2018-19) puts the total annual plastic waste generation in India at a humungous 3.3 million metric tonnes per year.

However in order to reduce plastic waste upto an extent we can follow the given ways that have been mentioned in many educational books:

1. Bring your own cloth bags to the grocery store (or any store!).

2. Don’t buy beverages bottles in plastic. Glass is great.

3. Carry your own reusable steel or ceramic beverage container. If they’re too pricey, use a glass mason jar! Heavy, but cheap.

4. Don’t get to-go coffee or hot drinks. Your drink lid and cup will live on for over 100 years! The lids and lining are plastic. Bring your own or ask for a ceramic, reusable cup.

5. Go to the farmer’s market and purchase fresh fruit and veggies (not packaged in plastic).

6. Use rechargeable batteries to reduce buying batteries packaged in plastic.

7. Make a compost heap to reduce your food waste and put it back into the earth.

8. Use a reusable cloth bag or old fashioned steel lunch box to carry your lunch. (Reef relief.org ) This can be a medium to reduce the waste that have occupied the space of nature.

As we discussed earlier that only 9%of plastics are being recycled the remaining ones are responsible for polluting the environment, in order to utilise this plastics many technologies have evolved in the world out of them is “ Plastic to Fuel”.

“The solution of plastics-to-fuel holds promise in not only curbing such pervasive pollution but also providing a significant economic benefit to regions. The American chemistry council estimates plastic-to-fuel facilities in the US alone would create nearly 39,000 jobs and almost $9bn in economic output, making the global market potential of such an industry huge.

Plastic-derived fuels are also capable of producing a cleaner burning fuel than traditional sources due to their low sulphur content, considering the majority of developing nations use sulphur-heavy diesel.” (Power technology)

Reducing the consumption of plastics therefore requires not only a change in habits, but also a change of mindset.