Curbing menace of single use plastic

Jagdish Godihal

The World Environment Day 2022 was celebrated recently with a theme “Only One Earth" with the focus on “Living Sustainably in Harmony with Nature.” It calls for collective, transformative action on a global scale to celebrate, protect and restore our planet, its environmental capacity. Keeping this in view, the Government of India banned the single use plastic from July 1.

Our planet is choking on plastic, it is time to change how we produce, consume and dispose of the plastic we use. Today, we produce about 400 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. Systemic change is needed to stop the flow of plastic waste ending up in the environment. Since the 1970s, the rate of plastic production has grown faster than that of any other material. If historic growth trends continue, global production of primary plastic is forecast to reach 1,100 million tonnes by 2050. We have also seen a worrying shift towards single-use plastic products, items that are meant to be thrown away after a single short use.

Approximately 36 per cent of all plastics produced are used in packaging, including single-use plastic products for food and beverage containers, approximately 85 per cent of which ends up in landfills or as unregulated waste. Systemic change is needed to stop the flow of plastic waste ending up in the environment. Of the seven billion tonnes of plastic waste generated globally so far, less than 10 per cent has been recycled. Millions of tonnes of plastic waste is lost to the environment, or sometimes shipped thousands of kilometres to destinations where it is mostly burned or dumped. Plastic waste whether in a river, the ocean, or on land can persist in the environment for centuries reducing the environmental assimilative capacity.

Let us adapt best management practices to restore Environmental Capacity following JaGo Equation of sustainability and transformative actions mentioned below:

Shop Sustainably: Next time you are out shopping, choose food with no plastic packaging, carry a reusable bag, buy local products, and refill containers to reduce your plastic waste and effect on the environment.

Practice Zero-Waste Lifestyle: Become a zero-waste champion. Invest in sustainable, environment-friendly products - reusable coffee mugs, water bottles and food wraps.

Travel Sustainably: When you are on holiday, refuse miniature bottles in hotel rooms, take your own reusable drinking bottle.

Be an advocate for change: Ask your fellow colleagues, local eateries not to use plastic packaging, refuse plastic cutlery and straws, and tell them why. (To preserve Environmental Capacity).

(The writer is professor, Presidency University, Bengaluru, Karnataka).