Ahead of week-long negotiations involving 192 countries that are expected to begin in Toronto, Canada, next week on getting the globe to progress on eliminating plastic pollution, India is in favour of “regulating” and not outright eliminating single-use plastic, according to an analysis of various countries’ public negotiating positions by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a not-for-profit based in New Delhi.
In 2022, India brought into effect the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules (2021) that banned 19 categories of ‘single-use plastics’. These are defined as disposable goods that are made with plastic but are generally use-and-throw after a single use and include plastic cups, spoons, earbuds, decorative thermocol, wrapping or packaging film used to cover sweet boxes and cigarette packets, and plastic cutlery. It, however, doesn’t include plastic bottles – even those less than 200ml— and multi-layered packaging boxes (like in milk cartons). Moreover, even the single-use plastic items that are banned are not uniformly enforced nationally with several outlets continuing to retail these goods.
The rationale behind banning certain kinds of plastic and leaving others out derives from a report by an expert committee on single-use plastics constituted by the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals. They scored different plastic goods on the basis of their utility and environmental impact, according to a report by the CSE. The current ban only addresses about 11% of single-use plastic in India, says the report.
