India generates an estimated 16 lakh tonnes of plastic waste annually. If sold at the global average rate of 50 cents a kg, it can generate a revenue of Rs.5,600 crore a year.
Plastic waste continues to accumulate in the oceans. Almost 800 animal species are affected by marine debris, marine animals keep dying as a direct result of plastic, and microplastics have spread to the world’s most remote areas.
Up to 5 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year, amounting to almost 10 million plastic bags per minute , a recent report from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) indicated.

Plastic Waste Management Rules,2016:-

• The 2011 rules were succeeded by the PWM Rules 2016, which tighten the rules (for example, banning plastic bags of less than 50 microns thickness), and also lay the foundation for accountability across the value-chain.
• The new rules require producers and brand-owners to devise a plan in consultation with the local bodies to introduce a collect-back system.
• The extended producers responsibility (EPR), would assist the municipalities in tackling the plastic waste issue.
• The rules also state that the manufacture and use of multi-layered plastics that are hard to recycle must be phased out.
• Increase minimum thickness of plastic carry bags from 40 to 50 microns and stipulate minimum thickness of 50 micron for plastic sheets also to facilitate collection and recycle of plastic waste,
• Expand the jurisdiction of applicability from the municipal area to rural areas
• To bring in the responsibilities of producers and generators, both in plastic waste management system and to introduce collect back system of plastic waste by the producers/brand owners, as per extended producers responsibility
• To introduce collection of plastic waste management fee through pre-registration of the producers, importers of plastic carry bags/multilayered packaging and vendors selling the same for establishing the waste management system;
• To promote use of plastic waste for road construction as per Indian Road Congress guidelines or energy recovery, or waste to oil etc. for gainful utilization of waste and also address the waste disposal issue
• To entrust more responsibility on waste generators, namely payment of user charge as prescribed by local authority, collection and handing over of waste by the institutional generator, event organizers.
• The local bodies shall be responsible for setting up, operationalisation and co-ordination of the waste management system and for performing associated functions.
  Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, waste has to be segregated separately at source. This includes separation of dry (plastic, paper, metal, glass) and wet (kitchen and garden) waste at source.
• Companies should have already submitted plans, by September 2016, for waste collection systems based on extended producer responsibility (EPR) either through their own distribution channels or with the local body concerned.

Outcome from the new rules includes:

• Increasing the thickness of plastic carry bags from 40 to 50 micron and stipulation of 50 micron thickness for plastic sheets is likely to increase the cost by about 20 %. Hence, the tendency to provide free carry bags will come down and collection by the waste-pickers also increase to some extent.
• More than 20 Indian States have announced a ban on plastic bags. Cities such as Bengaluru announced a complete ban (gazette notification), in 2016, on the manufacture, supply, sale and use of thermocol and plastic items irrespective of thickness.
  Collect back system
• The introduction of the collect back system of waste generated from various products by the producers/brand owners of those products will improve the collection of plastic waste,its reuse/ recycle.
• Phasing out of manufacture and use of non- recyclable multilayered plastic
• Responsibility of waste generator
• All institutional generators of plastic waste, shall segregate and store the waste generated by them in accordance with the Solid Waste Management Rules, and handover segregated wastes to authorized waste processing or disposal facilities or deposition centers, either on its own or through the authorized waste collection agency.
• Land for waste management facility
• The responsibility to provide land for establishing waste management facility has been made to the Department with business allocation of land allotment in the State Government. This would eliminate the issue of getting land for the waste management facility.

Criticisms:-

• Implementation of the rules has been poor in all aspects and the amendment says nothing to strengthen it.
• The status of plastic waste management in the country is grim even after the rules gave emphasis on banning plastics below 50 microns, phasing out use of multilayered packaging and introducing extended producer responsibility (EPR) for producers, importers and brand owners to ensure environmentally sound management of plastic products until the end of their lives.
• The idea of extended producer responsibility (EPR), which was introduced in the rules of 2016, still remains nowhereclose to being implemented even after two years.
  EPR targets have to be accounted for at the national level, irrespective of which state the products are sold or consumed in. The amendment does not address these issues. Moreover, no example of deposit refund scheme system has been implemented in any state.
• Lack of adequate infrastructure for segregation and collectionis the key reason for inefficient plastic waste disposal.
• Most municipal corporations still do not have a proper system of collection and segregation, given their lack of access to technology and infrastructure, which are needed to dispose of plastic waste in a cost- and resource-efficient way.
• The Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, mandate ULBs to set up facilities for processing sorted dry waste. However, the implementation has been rather bleak, owing to available land/space concerns.
• Source separation of waste, coupled with segregated collection and transportation, have been weak links in the waste supply
• Imposing penalties or fines is easier said than done in a democratic setup.
• Companies say that plastic waste is too complex or pretend to be completely unaware of these rules.

Way forward:-

• Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report has said that ban is barely effective
• Citizens need to be aware of these rules, governments need to work with citizens to collect fines and companies need to be held accountable in terms of their environmental and social responsibilities.
• Additionally, there should be research on ways to implement these rules, waste generation quantities and trends and find innovative alternatives to plastic.
• ULBs could a take cue from cities like Bangalore where dry waste collection centres have not only been established but also have a self-sustainable business model.
• Municipalities must develop waste collection plans, coupled with outreach activities, to sensitise citizens on waste segregation.
• It is imperative to develop a phase-wise implementation of the EPR programme with yearly targets and a system of nationwide offsets and credit to ensure effective implementation of the rules.

International examples:-

• The success of imposing a plastic bag fee has also been established in cities like Chicago and Washington, showing that such interventions could be effective in shaping behaviour change.
• The European Union is mulling new laws to ban some everyday single-use plastic products including straws, cutlery and plates citing plastic litter in oceans as the concern prompting the action.

Encouraging plogging:-

• Picking up litter while jogging or strolling was kick-started on a small scale in a small part of Stockholm about an year ago, it has spread across the globe and India can adopt this as well.
• Countries such as the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands have already put in place regulations to stop the use of microbeads in personal-care products. The sooner India adopts such regulations, the better
• Recycling has to ensure that wastes are converted into products of the same quality, if not better, compared to the original product.

Stop using single use plastic:-

• The Government of the state of Maharashtra has announced an ambitious ban of plastic bags, water bottles and other disposable plastic items in the state after the state civic bodies started facing serious problems on garbage disposing and its management.
• Fine for violating the ban will be Rs 5,000 for the first offence, Rs 10,000 for the second and Rs 25,000 for the third offence or a three-month jail term or both.
  With a worldwide crisis due to plastic waste, India has to involve all the stakeholders take the responsibility of ensuring minimisation, reuse and recycling of plastic to the maximum.
• Sensitise people to stop littering and segregate their waste. Nowadays the most popular eco-conscious effort is participating in beach cleanups.
• Sanitary napkins made from biodegradable material, menstrual cups should be promoted.

Monetise plastic waste:-

• Canadian company monetises plastic waste in novel ways. It has one of the largest chains of waste plastic collection centres, where waste can be exchanged for anything (from cash to medical insurance to cooking fuel).
• Through this, multinational corporations have invested in recycling infrastructure and in providing a steady and increased rate for waste plastic to incentivise collection in poor countries.
• Such collection centres, like the ones operated by informal aggregators in India, can be very low-cost investments (a storage facility with a weighing scale and a smart phone).