Introduction:

Plastic is clearly an environmental crisis, with an estimated eight million animal-killing tonnes entering the oceans each year.
Use of single-use plastic has jumped 400% since 2013. (Single-use plastics, or disposable plastics, are used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. These items are things like plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers, soda and water bottles and most food packaging)
Only about 9% of this plastic has been recycled, 12% has been burned and the remaining 79% has ended up in landfills or the environment
In heavily polluted areas of the marine environment, like the North Pacific Central Gyre, the mass of plastic is up to six times greater than the mass of plankton

What are plastics?

Plastics are non-biodegradable, synthetic polymers.
They are made-up of long chain hydrocarbons with additives and can be moulded into finished products.
These polymers are broken into monomers such as ethylene, propylene, vinyl, styrene and benzene etc.
Finally, these monomers are chemically polymerized into different categories of plastics.

Chemicals in Plastic

Two broad classes of plastic-related chemicals are of critical concern for human health—bisphenol-A or BPA, and additives used in the synthesis of plastics, which are known as phthalates.

Why Plastic is Bad for Environment:

Petroleum based plastic is not biodegradable and usually goes into a landfill where it is buried or it gets into the water and finds its way into the ocean.
Since plastic do not decompose into natural substance like soil, it degrades (break down) into tiny particles after many years. In the process of breaking down, it releases toxic chemicals (additives that were used to shape and harden the plastic) which make their way into our food and water supply.
These toxic chemicals are now being found in our bloodstream. Causing cancer, infertility, birth defects, impaired immunity and many other ailments.

Penetration of Plastic Pollution:

Major threat to oceans- According to a 2017 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) report, micro plastics are estimated to constitute up to 30% of marine litter polluting the oceans
The ingestion of microplastics is very dangerous for humans as these substances contain high concentrations of toxic chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls
People living along rivers and coastlines in China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam are the most impacted by plastic pollution.
Low-income communities face more health impacts near plastic production sites, have greater exposure to toxins and waste, and bear the brunt of the impacts of improper plastic disposal and incineration.
Henderson Island in the South Pacific is the most plastic polluted of any island recorded to date.

Studies shows eliminating all plastic, or using alternative materials such as paper and glass, could be more harmful to the environment than plastic itself.

Argument against proposed alternative:

1. Compostable plastic bags – Compostable plastic cannot degrade in nature; it has to be separated from other waste and heated to 70 degrees Celsius at an industrial facility.
2. Bioplastics –May not necessarily be biodegradable and may require very specific conditions to break down. They also do not solve the litter or throwaway culture problem
3. Glass containers – Studies show that making and moving glass bottles uses nearly five times more energy than plastic.
4. Paper bags – considered greener than plastic. Analyses of both materials show plastic bag production causes significantly less air and water pollution.
5. Micro plastic – Study has not shown if consuming micro plastic is harmful or not. It’s an emerging area of research, one the World Health Organization is working to assess.
6. Incineration – Creates other pollution and does not address the overproduction problem.
7. Focusing on end of life like recycling or disposal – We can’t recycle our way out of this crisis.
8. Clean up – While cleanup efforts help reduce litter problems, they do not address the source of the problem and ignore the unseen plastic pollution – micro plastics.
9. Throwaway alternatives – Replacing one single-use item with another does not necessarily solve the problem or help to address our throwaway culture.

Legislation in India:

1, Plastic Waste Management Rules (PWR), 2011:
It was introduced under the Environment Protection Act, 1986.
The rules established a framework which assigned responsibilities for plastic waste management to the urban local bodies

2. Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016
The rules offer directives to urban local bodies and Gram Panchayats on segregation, collection, transportation, processing and disposal of plastic waste in their areas of jurisdiction.

3. Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2018
Recommends a central registration system for the registration of the producer, importer or brand owner.
Recommends a national registry for producers with presence in more than two states, a state-level registration for producers operating within one or two states
Rule related to explicit pricing of carry bags has been removed.

International Ban on use of Plastic:

Around the world, various cities, countries, and regions are banning or proposing bans on different single-use plastics like Morocco’s bag ban, Seattle, U.S.’s straw ban, and the City of Vancouver, Canada’s proposed coffee cup and Styrofoam container ban.
Proposals to make consumer brands and plastic producers responsible for the cost of plastic waste are slowly taking shape.
Kenya has one of the most stringent bans — five manufacturers and 70 distributors were prosecuted there in the first half of 2018
UK retailer Iceland committed to going plastic free for all of its own brand products.
Zero waste supermarkets are popping up in various cities in countries including the UK, Germany, Canada, the United States, Mexico, South Africa and more.
Six chemicals the European Union has declared too toxic for use in plastic toys are nevertheless permitted for food packaging, according to a recent study.

Recommendations:

Many experts now say plastic producers or consumer brands should pay for the disposal of their packaging, instead of pushing the cost onto communities.
Under proposed “Extended Producer Responsibility” rules that are gaining traction in Europe and elsewhere which impose higher fees on use of plastic.
By growing global awareness of the social, economic and environmental impacts of our current relationship with disposable plastics, as well as outlining a wide-ranging set of alternatives, UN Environment is setting the stage for an informed dialogue on how to break the global addiction to single-use plastics.

In this light an expedited policy is the need of the hour.