"Cows eat it too" read a headline and news channels flashed snapshots of marine wildlife entangled in plastic litter, often mistaken as authentic food. The quantum of plastic waste has increased manifolds, owing to factors like increase in population, developmental activities, change in life style and socio-economic conditions.

The sources of it are both land and marine-based. The origin may be local or distant and the environmental and health implications are many and varied. From trash to trash bin, it is found every where on our landmass and oceans, where plastic waste accumulates in seas of debris and birds and animals are either deformed or are dying of starvation with bellies full of litter. Largest of these, accumulation of ocean trash is known as Pacific Gyre/the great Garbage Patch, floating midway between Hawaii and San Francisco.

Before the inundation of plastics in 1860s, traditional crafts and articles were much in use. The first man-made plastic was unveiled by Alexander Parkes in 1862 and was dubbed as Parkesine, which was an organic material derived from cellulose. It was later in 1933, that the two researchers, E.W. Fawcett and R.O. Gibson hit a breakthrough, when they created a revolutionary substance, polyethylene. Polythene has gained tremendous popularity since then and today it is the largest in volume and the most common plastic in the world, primarily used for films, bags and packaging.

The plastic consumption in India, as per estimates in 2008 by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), was eight MT/annum, out of which about 5.7 MT of plastics are converted into waste annually, i.e. 15,722 tons of plastic waste is generated per day. Therefore, the per capita generation of plastic waste has been estimated as 5.7 kg/annum. It has been reported that 60 per cent of total plastic waste generated is recycled and rest 40 per cent is littered and remains uncollected. Therefore, approximately, 6289 tonnes per day (TPD), i.e. 40 per cent of plastics are neither collected, nor recycled and find their way into drains, open lands, rivers, railway tracks, coasts and eventually find their way into the food chain. The littered waste gets mixed with other wastes, hence making segregation more difficult.

Among all the plastic goods, Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottles and bags are the major culprits, which add to heaps of plastic waste. Usually plastic waste is collected and eventually winds up in landfills, where they are mummified without undergoing any decomposition.

The reason that numerous toxic additives (Benzene, Styrene, VoCs, chlorine, etc.) used in plastics, which are known to cause health hazards when ingested or inhaled (via burning), is enough to warrant a serious reconsideration of plastic use, both on an industrial (productive) and personal scale.

Due to inadequate refuse collection and disposal systems, waste is dealt in several ways, terrestrial disposal, disposal into streams and rivers, burning/incineration. Each of which has serious environmental and health consequences.

Considering the need for waste minimisation and effective management of the polymer to cope with the problem, there is an imperative need to tackle the same by incorporating green mantra of six Rs’ - Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recover and Residual management. However, unlike any other waste, it is an intractable problem, which requires more options than simply the five Rs’. Therefore, for an effective waste management, it is paramount to rethink (topmost in the hierarchy) each of the above steps.

Of all the management strategies known, recycling is apparently the one being implemented by one and large across the globe. Though recycling plastic, an eminently adopted worldwide practice, helps keep the dirty heaps out of sight and reduce landfill burden, it has its demerits too. With each round of recycle, the quality of product deteriorates considerably. An interesting thing is that plastic has never been recycled since its introduction. It can be only down cycled into other items and reusable totes.

"With the per capita consumption expected to double from 8kg in next five years, portrays the huge demand expected within this industry" quoted an elated Mr Yogesh Shah, President, The All India Plastics Manufacturers Association (AIPMA), during his visit to the eighth Plastivision India 2011. In the towns, cities and tourist centres, the plastic waste has become a plague and attempts to cure it have begun to spring up.

Increasing awareness about plastic waste nuisance and need to regulate the existing plastic waste management system led to the formation of Plastic Waste Management Task Force in 1996 in India. Prior to this, there was no definite policy and legislations in respect of plastic waste management.

Many developing countries like India are banning the use of plastic bags and utilising them elsewhere following the principle of reuse. Giving explicit recognition and new dimension to waste management scenario, Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) notified Plastic waste (Management and Handling Rules), 2011 recently. Stipulation of benchmarked Indian Standards for recycling facilities, mandatory pricing of consumer carry bags given by retailers, a labelling scheme, and introduction of extended producer responsibility for manufacturers to fund the creation of collection centres, are some of the laudable aspects of the rule.

One of the Indian states, which have taken significant strides in this field, is Himachal Pradesh. In view of the growing menace, Himachal Pradesh is the first to formulate Himachal Pradesh Non-Biodegradable Garbage (Control) Act in 1995, to prevent throwing or littering of plastic waste in open drains, roads and places open to public view. Although the said act couldn’t curtail the use of plastic bags, it checked the reckless discarding of the polymer. Himachal Pradesh since then has been playing a constructive role in changing the attitude of the general public and undertaking awareness campaigns to educate the public on littering relentlessly.

In the wake of the ever increasing plastic debris, Polythene Hatao, Paryavaran Bachao (Remove polythene and Save the Environment) campaign was launched all across the state in 2009 and structured to complete in three phases:

To strengthen the mechanism and supplement sustainable plastic waste management Environmental Audit Scheme and Eco Monitoring schemes were launched too. The schemes aim at creating mass awareness through students and check use/proliferation of polythene bags by constituting eco monitoring teams. Such innovative and pragmatic steps will certainly drive the state towards polythene free and carbon neutral state of the country.

Prof. Prem Kumar Dhumal, Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh participates in Polythene Clean up Campaign

Although it is impossible to completely wipe-out plastic from our daily life, it is prudent to curb the use of polythene for health reasons and save the environment from further degradation. The question which still lies unanswered is who should bear the burden of this problem? Consumers, who generate waste and thrash after the plastic has outlived its usefulness, or the producers, who creates and markets the product? Rather the responsibility lies on each and every individual and everyone should shoulder the responsibility to minimise the plastic usage at least if not stopped.

Add a day to the life of our planet and reduce plastic footprint. q