India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pursuing an ambitious strategy to phase out single-use plastics in the enormous South Asian nation of 1.3 billion people by 2022. Here are the five most important facts concerning plastic waste and recycling in India:
Consumption per person
According to estimates given by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in 2017, India’s per capita consumption is 11 kilograms (24 pounds), on the other hand, the United States, which has the world’s highest at 109 kilograms.
According to the data, the global average is around 28 kg. The government expects consumption to rise to 20 kg by 2022.
According to government estimates, India, the world’s second-most populated country, creates around 5.6 million tonnes of plastic garbage every year
Single-use plastics
PM Modi aims to reduce the usage of single-use plastics including bags, cutlery, and straws. According to the industry, about half of all plastics in India come in use for packaging, with the majority of them being single-use.
Several Indian states have already prohibited the use of plastic carry bags. However, enforcement has been lax. In response to Modi’s call for corporations to join his effort, national carrier Air India and online e-commerce behemoths Amazon India and Walmart-backed Flipkart have announced plans to phase out single-use plastic packaging in the coming years.
Waste
According to the government, plastic accounts for around 8% of total solid waste in India.
Visible impact
Plastic trash influences two main river systems that run through India. According to the United Nations, the Indus (164,332 tonnes). And Meghna-Brahmaputra-Ganges (72,845 tonnes) rivers transport some of the world’s largest volumes of plastic garbage to the seas.
Recycling
When waste is collection process in India, do not allow to separate, and large volumes of plastic trash choke public places as well as aquatic bodies.
The segregation and recycling system in India is in hands of an informal network of employees, ranging from ragpickers dealers who sell the plastic to plants.
According to different estimates, over 60% of plastic garbage in India gets recycled. According to the United Nations, just 9% of all plastic garbage generated globally has been recycled.