The plastics industry breathes a sigh of relief, while environmentalists feel betrayed: the Indian government will not be going ahead with the ban on single-use plastics that had been expected to come into force on Gandhi's birthday.
On 15 August – India's Independence Day – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the public and government agencies to "take the first big step" towards freeing the country from single-use plastic, starting from 2 October. A significant date, being the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, the man venerated as the father of the Indian nation. Modi's address was interpreted globally as the prelude to a bold move towards a single-use plastic-free India by 2022. But, when the moment of truth arrived, the Indian government made it clear that there would be no immediate measures to ban plastic bags, cups, plates, bottles, straws and sachets, merely reiterating its commitment to limiting their use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25pqydh5Ji4
Single-use plastics are those disposable products intended for a single use, such as food packaging and products bought on e-commerce platforms. The most common items include shopping bags, bottles, bottle caps, food wrappers, plastic bags, multi-layer food packaging and straws, among others. India generates approximately 25,940 tonnes of plastic waste per day, according to a report published in 2017 by the Central Pollution Control Board (Central pollution control board), which extrapolated data from 60 large urban centres across the country.
Some people are mistakenly talking about a 'plastic-free' India. I never said that. I said that single-use plastic, which is used only once, causes many problems.Narendra Modi, 30 September
"Prime Minister Modi did not speak of a 'ban', but of a 'farewell' to single-use plastic waste – clarified Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change –. From 2 October we will begin an attempt to collect all that waste. There are still almost 10,000 tonnes of plastic to be removed."
The government will, for now, ask states to enforce rules already in place against the storage, manufacture and use of certain single-use plastic products, such as polyethylene bags and polystyrene, declared the senior official at the Ministry of Environment, Chandra Kishore Mishra. "No new ban order has been issued. It is now a matter of informing people about the negative effects of plastic and focusing on collection and recycling so that people do not abandon their waste," Mishra added. It should be noted, however, that some Indian states, such as Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and others, have already implemented blanket bans on single-use plastic items.
"The consumption of single-use plastic has increased dramatically in recent years, replacing many biodegradable packaging materials because it is cheaper and more readily available," explained Naba Dutta, Secretary General of Sabuj Mancha, a civil society organisation working on the environment. "Plastic has an impact on almost every aspect of life. The government should create a clear programme to solve the problem."
The possibility of a nationwide ban had already caused unease in the plastics industry, a sector that in 2019 recorded an annual turnover of 50 billion US dollars (3.5 trillion rupees) and employs approximately 5 million people across more than 50,000 processing units. In the debate over a measure targeting single-use plastics, former minister Jairam Ramesh of the opposition party INC (Indian National Congress) was highly critical, saying it was a bad idea. "As Environment Minister I rejected a blanket ban on single-use plastics. The plastics industry provides jobs for a great many people, and the real problem is waste disposal and recycling," he wrote in a tweet.
Industry experts are convinced that the fierce criticism directed at the government over its inability to prevent job losses and economic recession had hampered the introduction of the ban. Hundreds of thousands of workers have been laid off by small and medium-sized enterprises in recent months as the economy deteriorates; the worst-affected sector is automotive. The government has sought to restore some normality by adopting a series of measures, but the results are not encouraging.
The clamour surrounding the supposed ban and the fact that it never materialised have left many environmentalists baffled – those who want to see the country free from plastic pollution. Many believe the whole affair was a ploy to score points at the United Nations Climate action summit, held in New York on 23 September. "All the noise around the proposed ban was simply to win applause ahead of the Prime Minister's visit to the UN," commented Ajay Mittal, founder of the non-profit organisation Kolkata clean air. "The plastics industry has finally won, at the expense of citizens' health." Gandhi too must be turning in his grave, given the chaos and controversy surrounding his birthday this year.
Translated by Patrick Bracelli
