Susanne Rust, Anabel Sosa
Thu, June 30, 2022
A trash can overflows with plastic waste at a park. The bill requires that by Jan. 1, 2028, at least 30% of plastic items sold, distributed or imported into the state be recyclable. (Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press)
Striking a blow against a pernicious form of pollution, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Thursday the nation’s most far-reaching restrictions on single-use plastics and packaging.
The legislation heads off a November ballot measure that many lawmakers and the plastics industry hoped to avoid, and it puts California at the forefront of national efforts to eliminate polystyrene and other plastics that litter the environment, degrade into toxic particles and increasingly inhabit human blood, tissue and organs.
Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) had tried for years to get state legislators to tackle the growing plastic pollution crisis but has faced opposition from the plastics industry, some food container manufacturers and environmentalists who believe the law doesn't go far enough.
"Relief," was how he described his emotional state after the legislation was signed. "It's been a long journey."
The California Senate approved the bill Thursday morning with 29 ayes and zero "nos," after the Assembly passed it 67 to 2 late Wednesday. Backers in both houses applauded the bill's historic nature and bipartisan support, as did Newsom.
“Our kids deserve a future free of plastic waste and all its dangerous impacts," said the governor in a statement. "Everything from clogging our oceans to killing animals — contaminating the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. No more."
"With this legislation, California continues its tradition of global environmental leadership," Allen added. The new law, he said, would "grow markets, create incentives for investment, and give tools to other states and countries to help play their part in this fight."
For the past six months, a team of roughly two dozen negotiators — mostly women — hammered out language designed to reduce plastic, increase recycling and shift the economic burden of waste disposal to plastic producers and packagers. They also sought to find language that would satisfy those producers, as well as waste managers, packaging companies and environmentalists.
As recently as two weeks ago, environmental leaders were divided on amendments to Allen's bill, with backers of the ballot measure claiming his bill gave away too much to industry. But following more talks and revisions, initiative backers have since come behind the legislation and agreed to drop their ballot plans.
At the Capitol on Thursday, the atmosphere was festive, as environmentalists congregated on the building's steps with a giant, inflatable turtle. They held signs showing support for the bill, while they danced and shuffled to the Beach Boys' "Surfin USA."
The bill requires that by Jan. 1, 2028, at least 30% of plastic items sold, distributed or imported into the state be recyclable. By 2032, that number rises to 65%. It also calls for a 25% reduction in single-use plastic waste by 2032 and provides CalRecycle with the authority to increase that percentage if the amount of plastic in the economy and waste stream grows.
In the case of expanded polystyrene, that number needs to reach 25% by 2025. If the number isn't hit, the ubiquitous, hard-to-recycle foamy plastic will be banned.
Some 128 California cities already have bans on polystyrene.
"It's a de facto ban," said Jay Ziegler with the Nature Conservancy, of the bill's polystyrene recycling requirement. He added that current recycling rates for polystyrene are in the low single digits, making it improbable that a 25% recycling target could be met in three years.
Plastics waste has become an increasing scourge nationwide as plastics packaging has become ubiquitous in groceries, fast-food outlets and other businesses, and consumers — especially during the pandemic — have embraced take-out items delivered in single-use containers. The resulting waste pollutes marine environments and clogs landfills, in part because of challenges in recycling plastics, including China's decision to end imports of plastics waste several years ago.
The bill is based on a policy concept known as Extended Producer Responsibility, which shifts the responsibility of waste from consumers, towns and cities to companies manufacturing products with environmental impacts. . It also gives plastics companies extensive oversight and authority in terms of the program's management, execution and reporting, via a Producer Responsibility Organization, which will be made up of industry representatives.
Among various duties, the group will be responsible for collecting fees from its participating organizations to pay for the program, as well as an annual $500-million fee that will be directed to plastic pollution mitigation fund.
CalRecycle has ultimate authority over the program.
Negotiators, including Heidi Sanborn, founder of the National Stewardship Action Council, said past failures in Extended Producer Responsibility laws influenced how this legislation was written, enabling the authors to identify areas that could be abused or ignored.
In 2010, the state created a similar producer responsibility law mandating carpet recycling. Overseen by the industry, the target was 24% recycling by 2020. Recycling rates decreased after the program was instituted. CalRecycle sued the group for $3.3 million in 2017 for failing to meet its target, and in 2021, they settled for $1.175 million.
In another case that involved California's Paint Care program, the manufacturers ultimately sued the state and used the funding from the program to cover their litigation costs.
Language in this new plastic bill includes clear dates and consequences for failure, including a $50,000-per-day fine on any company or "entity" not in compliance with the law, as well as directions for how collected fees can and cannot be used.
"We've learned from mistakes in the past," said Sanborn. "This legislation is solid."
Not everyone is happy.
The American Chemistry Council's vice president of plastics, Joshua Baca, issued a statement on Wednesday saying that although his organization had worked alongside Allen and the negotiators for months, the final version "is not the optimal legislation to drive California towards a circular economy."
He said the law's definition of recycling "needs to be improved and made clearer so new, innovative technologies that keep hard to recycle plastic out of the environment and landfills count in achieving the circularity goals in the legislation."
Environmental justice groups had expressed concern that the bill left open the opportunity for waste companies to try to recycle plastics by employing polluting methods such as pyrolysis and gasification, which convert plastics into fuel, energy or other forms of plastic.
"The bill, with my committee's amendments, bans chemical recycling and includes recognition of the protection of disadvantaged and low-income communities," said Assemblymember Luz Rivas (D-North Hollywood). "I would not let the bill out of my committee if I felt that a chemical recycling plant could be built in my community."
Other critics say the bill doesn't explicitly single out plastics but includes language that could pull in other materials such as paper, cardboard and glass.
Materials "that are not tossed out as trash should not be treated as solid waste, and the Legislature must act to eliminate any confusion about that,” said Melinda Andrade, executive director of the Assn. of California Recycling Industries.
Kevin Messner, with the Assn. of Home Appliance Manufacturers, voiced a similar concern. He said the language of the bill, which includes all packaging material, will hurt his clients and create a disincentive for them to use non-plastic materials, which are often heavier, bulkier and more expensive.
But environmentalists, including Anja Brandon with the Ocean Conservancy, said the bill takes an important step toward ensuring all single-use items are recycled.
"We have set up the system so that everyone who creates single use packaging pays, but they pay at a different rate," she said. "We're investing in building a recycling infrastructure and getting away from extractive practices that focus on virgin material."
Nick Lapis of Californians Against Waste said that passage of the bill sets the bar for the rest of the nation. But for it to be successful "it will be incumbent on us and the regulators to keep industry’s feet to the fire," he said. "We absolutely cannot claim a victory and walk away."
Lawmakers agreed, with one saying it should have come earlier.
“It's incomprehensible the level of plastic pollution across the globe and how it's affecting our water waste and air. ... I just hope we're not too late, " said Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley).
Rust reported from Menlo Park and Sosa from Sacramento.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Like California, India starts phasing out single-use plastic
ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL
Fri, July 1, 2022
Workers at a helmet store put up a sign in the shop window in Hyderabad, India. (Mahesh Kumar A. / Associated Press)
India banned some single-use or disposable plastic products Friday as part of a federal plan to phase out the ubiquitous material in the nation of nearly 1.4 billion people.
For the first stage, it has identified 19 plastic items that aren't very useful but have a high potential to become litter,. The new law makes it illegal to produce, import, stock, distribute or sell items such as plastic cups, straws and ice cream sticks. Some disposable plastic bags will also be phased out and replaced with thicker ones.
Thousands of other plastic products, such as water bottles and potato-chip bags, aren't covered by the ban. But the Indian government has set targets for manufacturers to recycle or dispose of them after their use.
Plastic manufacturers had appealed to the government to delay the ban, citing inflation and potential job losses. But India's environment minister, Bhupender Yadav, said at a news briefing in New Delhi that the ban had been in the pipeline for a year.
“Now that time is up,” he said.
This isn't the first time that India has considered a plastic ban. But previous iterations have focused on specific regions, with varying degrees of success. A nationwide ban that includes not just the use of plastic but also its production or importation was a “definite boost," said Satyarupa Shekhar, the Asia-Pacific coordinator of the advocacy group Break Free from Plastic.
Most plastic isn't recycled globally, and millions of tons pollute the world's oceans, affect wildlife and turn up in drinking water. Scientists are still trying to assess the risks posed by the tiny bits of broken-down plastic, known as microplastics. In 2020, more than 4.5 million tons of plastic waste was generated in India, according to the country's federal pollution watchdog.
The creaky waste-management system in India's burgeoning cities and villages means that much of this waste isn't recycled and ends up polluting the environment. Nearly 14 million tons of plastic waste was either littered or not recycled by the South Asian nation in 2019 — the highest in the world, according to Our World in Data.
Making plastic releases planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and India is home to factories that make more than 268,000 tons of disposable plastic each year. This means that reducing the manufacture and consequent waste of plastic is crucial for India to meet its target of reducing emissions from economic activity by 45% in eight years.
Although the new partial ban is a step in the right direction, Shekhar criticized it as inadequate.
“Given the magnitude of the plastic crisis, this is too little. And it’s too little both in its scope as well as the coverage,” said Shekhar.
Ravi Agarwal, the director of Toxics Link, a New Delhi-based advocacy group that focuses on waste management, said that the ban was “a good beginning” but that its success would depend on how well it is enforced by states and municipalities.
Indian officials said the banned items were identified with the availability of alternatives in mind, such as bamboo spoons, plantain trays and wooden ice-cream sticks. But in the days leading up to the ban, many vendors professed confusion.
Moti Rahman, 40, is a vegetable vendor in New Delhi. Customers at his cart carefully picked out fresh summer produce Tuesday before he tipped them into a plastic bag.
Rahman said he agrees with the ban but added that if plastic bags are stopped without a readily available and equally cost-effective replacement, his business will be negatively affected.
“After all, plastic is used in everything,” he said.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL
Fri, July 1, 2022
Workers at a helmet store put up a sign in the shop window in Hyderabad, India. (Mahesh Kumar A. / Associated Press)
India banned some single-use or disposable plastic products Friday as part of a federal plan to phase out the ubiquitous material in the nation of nearly 1.4 billion people.
For the first stage, it has identified 19 plastic items that aren't very useful but have a high potential to become litter,. The new law makes it illegal to produce, import, stock, distribute or sell items such as plastic cups, straws and ice cream sticks. Some disposable plastic bags will also be phased out and replaced with thicker ones.
Thousands of other plastic products, such as water bottles and potato-chip bags, aren't covered by the ban. But the Indian government has set targets for manufacturers to recycle or dispose of them after their use.
Plastic manufacturers had appealed to the government to delay the ban, citing inflation and potential job losses. But India's environment minister, Bhupender Yadav, said at a news briefing in New Delhi that the ban had been in the pipeline for a year.
“Now that time is up,” he said.
This isn't the first time that India has considered a plastic ban. But previous iterations have focused on specific regions, with varying degrees of success. A nationwide ban that includes not just the use of plastic but also its production or importation was a “definite boost," said Satyarupa Shekhar, the Asia-Pacific coordinator of the advocacy group Break Free from Plastic.
Most plastic isn't recycled globally, and millions of tons pollute the world's oceans, affect wildlife and turn up in drinking water. Scientists are still trying to assess the risks posed by the tiny bits of broken-down plastic, known as microplastics. In 2020, more than 4.5 million tons of plastic waste was generated in India, according to the country's federal pollution watchdog.
The creaky waste-management system in India's burgeoning cities and villages means that much of this waste isn't recycled and ends up polluting the environment. Nearly 14 million tons of plastic waste was either littered or not recycled by the South Asian nation in 2019 — the highest in the world, according to Our World in Data.
Making plastic releases planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and India is home to factories that make more than 268,000 tons of disposable plastic each year. This means that reducing the manufacture and consequent waste of plastic is crucial for India to meet its target of reducing emissions from economic activity by 45% in eight years.
Although the new partial ban is a step in the right direction, Shekhar criticized it as inadequate.
“Given the magnitude of the plastic crisis, this is too little. And it’s too little both in its scope as well as the coverage,” said Shekhar.
Ravi Agarwal, the director of Toxics Link, a New Delhi-based advocacy group that focuses on waste management, said that the ban was “a good beginning” but that its success would depend on how well it is enforced by states and municipalities.
Indian officials said the banned items were identified with the availability of alternatives in mind, such as bamboo spoons, plantain trays and wooden ice-cream sticks. But in the days leading up to the ban, many vendors professed confusion.
Moti Rahman, 40, is a vegetable vendor in New Delhi. Customers at his cart carefully picked out fresh summer produce Tuesday before he tipped them into a plastic bag.
Rahman said he agrees with the ban but added that if plastic bags are stopped without a readily available and equally cost-effective replacement, his business will be negatively affected.
“After all, plastic is used in everything,” he said.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
This Is What a Radical Plastic Ban Looks Like
Ismat Ara / New Delhi, India
Thu, June 30, 2022
India garbage
Credit - Zangrilli Andrea—Getty Images
As dawn breaks out over New Delhi, 15-year-old Alamgir Munna picks up his thela (cart) and heads out for work, such that it is.
At an age when he should be in school, the young ragpicker sifts through heaps of garbage for scraps of salable plastic and metals at the Okhla landfill, one of the three giant dumping grounds in the sprawling Indian capital, which produces about 10,000 tons of garbage every day. Munna is among the estimated 150,000 ragpickers in Delhi who work at the country’s three trash mountains—one of which is as tall as the Taj Mahal. Not officially recognized as sanitation workers, they brave the methane and other deadly chemicals from the decomposing waste, wild dogs, disease and putrid stench, to recycle about a fifth of the city’s garbage.
Munna makes a pittance, about 500 rupees, or $7, a day for his back-breaking work. Even that sad apology for a livelihood is about to disappear as India is set to implement a ban starting July 1 on single-use plastics, which are used to make items like earbuds, lollipop sticks, polystyrene packets, plates, cups, spoons, packaging wraps, cigarette packs and stirrers, among the other items of daily use that populate our life. Manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of these items made of single-use plastics which have “low utility and high littering potential” will not be allowed anymore, according to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Penalties include up to five years in jail, 100,000 rupees ($1,200) or both.
Ragpickers search for recyclable waste at a Delhi landfill site.Vijay Pandey—Picture Alliance/Getty Images
Like many other migrants who clean after the city’s leftovers, Munna is contemplating leaving Delhi and returning to his village. With the ban looming and no alternative livelihood in sight, he is bracing for an uncertain economic future—along with the rest of India’s 5 million ragpickers, equivalent to Ireland’s total population. For someone like him, with no skills or education and just about surviving on the margins of society—and the law—economic uncertainty is a euphemism for destitution, hunger, and worse.
The outlook is far less dire but no less alarming for the country’s 50,000 plastic manufacturing units—most of them small and medium-sized companies that, combined, employ about 400,000 people—as well as consumer conglomerates that depend on plastic for their wares. Leading beverage companies, for example, have been pleading with the government to put off the ban as they struggle to find replacements for the ubiquitous plastic straws accompanying their drink products.
As India finally takes the plunge in the war against plastic, the confusion, panic and uncertainty mirror the global struggle to transition away from plastic-dependence that is crucial to meet emission goals. It also underscores the urgency of breaking an addiction that is wrecking the planet and the heavy price nations have to pay for it.
Read more: U.S. Plastic Recycling Rates Are Even Worse Than We Thought
Few countries exemplify the double bind more than India. The Environmental Performance Index report for 2022 released on June 5 by Yale and Columbia universities ranks India (tied with Nigeria) as the least environmentally sustainable country out of a list of 180. India has rejected the findings of the report, but it accounts for a third of the 11 million tons of plastic waste flowing into the oceans every year, according to government figures. The country’s laws require all plastic waste to be separated and reused in projects like paving road and that only a small percentage of recyclables should be dumped in landfills. Mountains of garbage such as the one at Okhla speak otherwise. More than 40% of the total plastic waste in India is not even collected, let alone separated and recycled.
Some Indian states, such as Maharashtra and Karnataka have tried to ban single-use plastic in the past, but those efforts have largely been failures. That leave many skeptical about the new nationwide attempt. But Venkatesh Dutta, a professor at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University says that unlike the unsuccessful bans of plastic bags that have been tried earlier, this time the federal government is addressing the problem through the entire supply chain—starting from banning the manufacture and distribution of single-use plastic to banning its sale, possession, and imports.
If this national ban going into effect July 1 works, India will replace single-use plastic bags with thicker ones that are more durable, which in turn should help reduce overall plastic use. It will also move a step closer to eliminating multilayered plastic in future, the final frontier in the war on non-recyclables. The government has been toying with the idea of banning multilayered plastic, used in consumer-packaged goods of all manner, from ready-to-eat snacks to milk packets, but has been held back by the economic disruption such a move could unleash.
Read more: Reusable Packaging Is the Latest Eco-Friendly Trend. But Does It Actually Make a Difference?
That poses a problem for the lofty goals that the world has set for itself. In what the United Nations Environment Programme calls the most important environmental deal since the 2015 Paris Agreement, 175 countries, including India, signed a treaty this March at the UN Environment Assembly that pledged to end plastic pollution by formulating an internationally binding treaty by 2024.
But transitions such as these are daunting even for the most advanced of economies. Earlier this month, the U.S. announced a plan to phase out the sale of single-use plastic products in national parks and other public lands, but only by 2032. For a country such as India aiming for a more radical ban and much earlier, the challenges are even greater. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which first announced the single-use plastic ban in 2016, has refused to budge in the face of the chorus of appeals from industry groups to postpone the ban.
A 10-year-old ragpicker shows the money he earned after selling recyclable items he collected at the Bhalswa garbage dump in New Delhi.Vijay Pandey/Picture Alliance via Getty Images
Sunita Narain, director of the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi, says pushing through the ban is one thing, but implementing it is a different matter altogether, given the limited resources of the country’s pollution board, lack of public awareness, and a proper plan to transition into recyclables.
“You can’t just dictate these things,” says Narain. “It has to be a priority for the government to support the small-scale industries in the transition process.” Companies recycling waste plastic into products such as tiles and furniture often struggle to compete in the market because of their high production costs. Environmentalists like Narain have been calling for government incentives to help such companies in the recycling business.
Recycling is the way to go, not fines and bans
Globally, Kenya’s 2017 ban on single-use plastic bags, which imposed one of the heaviest fines in the world for manufacturing or possessing plastic, is often hailed as one of the most successful steps toward eliminating plastic. But Leah Oyake-Ombis, director of the Africa Livelihood Innovations for Sustainable Environment Consulting Group at the University of Nairobi and a notable critic of the ban, advocates a different approach, which emphasizes recycling and waste management over fines or bans. Developing economies are more likely to benefit more from this strategy, thanks to the employment opportunities it can create within the recycling chain, Oyake-Ombis says.
Government subsidies would be key to creating jobs while transitioning. But right now the bigger problem is keeping jobs. Much of the loss will be felt in India’s vast informal economy, which employs more than 80% of its workers such as Munna. “What will we do when there are no plastics to sell?” Munna asks, perhaps looking for suggestions.
In the formal sector, while India’s consumer goods companies will in general suffer as a result of the ban, small companies will be hit disproportionately harder, says Ashok Kumar Agarwal, president of the Indian Industries Association. That’s because, unlike conglomerates, they won’t be able to absorb the coming losses. “The government should offer subsidies for new machines, and other incentives for the transition to alternatives,” he says.
As of now, there is no such assistance available, creating a supply crunch in recyclable replacements for the plastic needed to make consumer packaged goods. It also keeps plastic much cheaper than the alternatives available.
Ragpickers collect reusable material at a garbage dump in Hyderabad, India, on June 4, 2022.Mahesh Kumar—AP
In 2016, the same year that the Indian government announced the plastic ban, Hemant Rohra left his full-time job and took a huge personal risk to start a small business making carry bags using a more biodegradable form of polypropylene—the basic element used to make plastic—by adding calcium and other minerals to it.
He had hoped that demand for biodegradable bags would increase with time. But it didn’t happen, as his bags cost six times more than regular plastic bags. He now wants lower taxes for his products. But more importantly, he says, the government should make sure that the ban is implemented properly.
In India, ambitious laws can often be applied lightly on the ground, allowing for loopholes. Similar expectations for this plastic ban is not misplaced given that industry groups have been urging the government to extend the deadline or go slow even days before the law is to kick in.
But the government is in no mood to bend. It is setting up control rooms and special enforcement teams across the country. State border checkpoints have been asked to look out for the banned items. As Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav, said on June 28, “We have given manufacturers plenty of time for preparation—11 months—before the ban was to come into force.”
Ismat Ara / New Delhi, India
Thu, June 30, 2022
India garbage
Credit - Zangrilli Andrea—Getty Images
As dawn breaks out over New Delhi, 15-year-old Alamgir Munna picks up his thela (cart) and heads out for work, such that it is.
At an age when he should be in school, the young ragpicker sifts through heaps of garbage for scraps of salable plastic and metals at the Okhla landfill, one of the three giant dumping grounds in the sprawling Indian capital, which produces about 10,000 tons of garbage every day. Munna is among the estimated 150,000 ragpickers in Delhi who work at the country’s three trash mountains—one of which is as tall as the Taj Mahal. Not officially recognized as sanitation workers, they brave the methane and other deadly chemicals from the decomposing waste, wild dogs, disease and putrid stench, to recycle about a fifth of the city’s garbage.
Munna makes a pittance, about 500 rupees, or $7, a day for his back-breaking work. Even that sad apology for a livelihood is about to disappear as India is set to implement a ban starting July 1 on single-use plastics, which are used to make items like earbuds, lollipop sticks, polystyrene packets, plates, cups, spoons, packaging wraps, cigarette packs and stirrers, among the other items of daily use that populate our life. Manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of these items made of single-use plastics which have “low utility and high littering potential” will not be allowed anymore, according to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Penalties include up to five years in jail, 100,000 rupees ($1,200) or both.
Ragpickers search for recyclable waste at a Delhi landfill site.Vijay Pandey—Picture Alliance/Getty Images
Like many other migrants who clean after the city’s leftovers, Munna is contemplating leaving Delhi and returning to his village. With the ban looming and no alternative livelihood in sight, he is bracing for an uncertain economic future—along with the rest of India’s 5 million ragpickers, equivalent to Ireland’s total population. For someone like him, with no skills or education and just about surviving on the margins of society—and the law—economic uncertainty is a euphemism for destitution, hunger, and worse.
The outlook is far less dire but no less alarming for the country’s 50,000 plastic manufacturing units—most of them small and medium-sized companies that, combined, employ about 400,000 people—as well as consumer conglomerates that depend on plastic for their wares. Leading beverage companies, for example, have been pleading with the government to put off the ban as they struggle to find replacements for the ubiquitous plastic straws accompanying their drink products.
As India finally takes the plunge in the war against plastic, the confusion, panic and uncertainty mirror the global struggle to transition away from plastic-dependence that is crucial to meet emission goals. It also underscores the urgency of breaking an addiction that is wrecking the planet and the heavy price nations have to pay for it.
Read more: U.S. Plastic Recycling Rates Are Even Worse Than We Thought
Few countries exemplify the double bind more than India. The Environmental Performance Index report for 2022 released on June 5 by Yale and Columbia universities ranks India (tied with Nigeria) as the least environmentally sustainable country out of a list of 180. India has rejected the findings of the report, but it accounts for a third of the 11 million tons of plastic waste flowing into the oceans every year, according to government figures. The country’s laws require all plastic waste to be separated and reused in projects like paving road and that only a small percentage of recyclables should be dumped in landfills. Mountains of garbage such as the one at Okhla speak otherwise. More than 40% of the total plastic waste in India is not even collected, let alone separated and recycled.
Some Indian states, such as Maharashtra and Karnataka have tried to ban single-use plastic in the past, but those efforts have largely been failures. That leave many skeptical about the new nationwide attempt. But Venkatesh Dutta, a professor at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University says that unlike the unsuccessful bans of plastic bags that have been tried earlier, this time the federal government is addressing the problem through the entire supply chain—starting from banning the manufacture and distribution of single-use plastic to banning its sale, possession, and imports.
If this national ban going into effect July 1 works, India will replace single-use plastic bags with thicker ones that are more durable, which in turn should help reduce overall plastic use. It will also move a step closer to eliminating multilayered plastic in future, the final frontier in the war on non-recyclables. The government has been toying with the idea of banning multilayered plastic, used in consumer-packaged goods of all manner, from ready-to-eat snacks to milk packets, but has been held back by the economic disruption such a move could unleash.
Read more: Reusable Packaging Is the Latest Eco-Friendly Trend. But Does It Actually Make a Difference?
That poses a problem for the lofty goals that the world has set for itself. In what the United Nations Environment Programme calls the most important environmental deal since the 2015 Paris Agreement, 175 countries, including India, signed a treaty this March at the UN Environment Assembly that pledged to end plastic pollution by formulating an internationally binding treaty by 2024.
But transitions such as these are daunting even for the most advanced of economies. Earlier this month, the U.S. announced a plan to phase out the sale of single-use plastic products in national parks and other public lands, but only by 2032. For a country such as India aiming for a more radical ban and much earlier, the challenges are even greater. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which first announced the single-use plastic ban in 2016, has refused to budge in the face of the chorus of appeals from industry groups to postpone the ban.
A 10-year-old ragpicker shows the money he earned after selling recyclable items he collected at the Bhalswa garbage dump in New Delhi.Vijay Pandey/Picture Alliance via Getty Images
Sunita Narain, director of the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi, says pushing through the ban is one thing, but implementing it is a different matter altogether, given the limited resources of the country’s pollution board, lack of public awareness, and a proper plan to transition into recyclables.
“You can’t just dictate these things,” says Narain. “It has to be a priority for the government to support the small-scale industries in the transition process.” Companies recycling waste plastic into products such as tiles and furniture often struggle to compete in the market because of their high production costs. Environmentalists like Narain have been calling for government incentives to help such companies in the recycling business.
Recycling is the way to go, not fines and bans
Globally, Kenya’s 2017 ban on single-use plastic bags, which imposed one of the heaviest fines in the world for manufacturing or possessing plastic, is often hailed as one of the most successful steps toward eliminating plastic. But Leah Oyake-Ombis, director of the Africa Livelihood Innovations for Sustainable Environment Consulting Group at the University of Nairobi and a notable critic of the ban, advocates a different approach, which emphasizes recycling and waste management over fines or bans. Developing economies are more likely to benefit more from this strategy, thanks to the employment opportunities it can create within the recycling chain, Oyake-Ombis says.
Government subsidies would be key to creating jobs while transitioning. But right now the bigger problem is keeping jobs. Much of the loss will be felt in India’s vast informal economy, which employs more than 80% of its workers such as Munna. “What will we do when there are no plastics to sell?” Munna asks, perhaps looking for suggestions.
In the formal sector, while India’s consumer goods companies will in general suffer as a result of the ban, small companies will be hit disproportionately harder, says Ashok Kumar Agarwal, president of the Indian Industries Association. That’s because, unlike conglomerates, they won’t be able to absorb the coming losses. “The government should offer subsidies for new machines, and other incentives for the transition to alternatives,” he says.
As of now, there is no such assistance available, creating a supply crunch in recyclable replacements for the plastic needed to make consumer packaged goods. It also keeps plastic much cheaper than the alternatives available.
Ragpickers collect reusable material at a garbage dump in Hyderabad, India, on June 4, 2022.Mahesh Kumar—AP
In 2016, the same year that the Indian government announced the plastic ban, Hemant Rohra left his full-time job and took a huge personal risk to start a small business making carry bags using a more biodegradable form of polypropylene—the basic element used to make plastic—by adding calcium and other minerals to it.
He had hoped that demand for biodegradable bags would increase with time. But it didn’t happen, as his bags cost six times more than regular plastic bags. He now wants lower taxes for his products. But more importantly, he says, the government should make sure that the ban is implemented properly.
In India, ambitious laws can often be applied lightly on the ground, allowing for loopholes. Similar expectations for this plastic ban is not misplaced given that industry groups have been urging the government to extend the deadline or go slow even days before the law is to kick in.
But the government is in no mood to bend. It is setting up control rooms and special enforcement teams across the country. State border checkpoints have been asked to look out for the banned items. As Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav, said on June 28, “We have given manufacturers plenty of time for preparation—11 months—before the ban was to come into force.”
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