Abstract
Plastic pollution has become a major environmental concern around the world due to the rapidly increasing production, consumption of single-use plastic products, and our inability to manage it properly. Plastic production increased exponentially, from about 2 million metric tonnes in 1950 to 348 million metric tonnes in 2017, and it is expected to double in capacity yet again by 2040. However, only 9 percent of the 8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic produced since the early 1950s, has been recycled, and that most plastic ends its life in landfills, dumps and the environment is an increasing cause of concern. Plastic pollution is a major challenge in developing nations like India, where garbage collection systems are often informal with low recycling rates. The COVID 19 pandemic has exacerbated the use of plastic through personal protective equipments (PPEs). Management of this biomedical plastic waste is an addition to this existing challenge. Tackling plastic pollution is high up on UNEP’s global agenda to enhance the political visibility of this concern, UNEP along with the Government of India designated it as the theme of World Environment Day 2018. UNEP also provides technical assistance through its partners to support India towards its national and sub-national initiatives. This paper highlights the magnitude of the problem and the role UNEP is playing in addressing some concerns.
Keywords
Introduction
Plastics have become a part of everyone’s life because they are durable, versatile and inexpensive. Our inability to manage it properly has led to one of the major environmental concerns –plastic pollution - in the world today.
Only 9 percent of the 8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic produced since the early 1950s, have been recycled and that most plastic ends its life in landfills, dumps, and the environment. 1 All the efforts so far made and announced to cut plastic waste will reduce that projected volume by only about 7% at the same time. Plastic production soared from 2 million metric tons in 1950 to 348 million metric tons in 2017, becoming a global industry valued at US$522.6 billion, and it is expected to double in capacity yet again by 2040. Mismanaged plastic waste will grow from 91 million metric tons in 2016 to 239 million metric tons by 2040. 2
The COVID 19 pandemic has exponentially increased the proliferation of plastic waste which is mainly due to the surge in e-commerce and home delivery with packaging needs and the increased usage of personal protective equipment (PPE). For instance, in China, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment estimated that hospitals in Wuhan produced more than 240 tonnes of waste daily at the height of the outbreak, compared with 40 tons during normal times. 3 In Bangkok, Thailand, plastic waste increased by 60 per cent from 2,115 metric tonne (MT), average, per day in 2019 to 3,432 MT/day in the month of April 2020. 4 Based on certain analysis, it is expected that the United States could generate an entire year’s worth of medical waste in just two months because of COVID-19. 5
Plastic Pollution: A Major Challenge
As in many parts of the world, the number of COVID-19 cases across India rise alarmingly, there has been a subsequent demand for PPEs at hospitals and households. As a majority of the COVID-19 cases remain asymptomatic, people discard used PPEs — after 72 hours of isolation — as per the guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). These PPEs, mainly made of plastics, get treated as any other waste item thereon — and there lies the dilemma of managing single-use plastics (SUPs) in this ongoing pandemic. 6
According to the State of Shopping App Marketing 2020’s mobile marketing analytics, India witnessed a 250 per cent spike in non-organic shopping app installs as the country began lifting lockdown restrictions in May. This shows that e-commerce, or online shopping, has increased. And so, has plastic packaging waste. 7
Additionally, plastic pollution is most visible in developing Asian nation like India, where garbage collection systems are often inefficient or non-existent with low recycling rates. As per the CPCB estimates, India generates about 3.3 million tonnes of plastic waste in 2018-19 and plastic contributes about 6-7 percent of total municipal solid waste generation in the country. 8 Of this, around 60 percent gets recycled and more than 9,400 tonnes end up in the seas, oceans, or gets piled up on lands devoid of source segregation. 9
The growth rate of the Indian plastics industry is among the highest in the world 10 , with plastic consumption at 11 kilograms is still only a tenth of the US and less than a third of China’s. However, the projected high growth rates of GDP and continuing rapid urbanization suggests that India’s trajectory of plastic consumption and plastic waste generation is likely to increase. 11
In 2018, the major importers of Indian plastic products were the US (US $652.28 million), China (US $480.8 million), the UAE (US $368.16 million), the UK (US $271.67 million), Germany (US $256.2 million), Turkey (US $246.86 million), Italy (US $208.29 million), Iran (US $194.5 million), Nepal (US $141.2 million) and Bangladesh (US $136.27 million). 12
The plastic processing industry in 2018, also estimated that polymer consumption from 2017 to 2022 is likely to grow at 10.4 percent, nearly half of which is single-use plastic. 13 In FY20 (till January 2020), plastic exports stood at US$ 7.045 billion with the highest contribution from plastic raw materials at US$ 2.91 billion; plastic sheets, films, and plates at US$ 1.22 billion; and packaging materials at US$ 722.47 million. 14 Unfortunately, much of this waste is finding its way into the environment mainly due to the ineffective waste management system.
UNEP’s Global Role in Combatting Plastic Pollution
Over the past few years, growing awareness and increased international attention on plastic pollution have encouraged action from individuals, organisations and governments. Plastic pollution, marine litter and microplastics have been intensively discussed at international fora, such as United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), G7 and G20.
UNEP has played a leading role in positioning plastics pollution at the top of the global agenda, placing the theme at the centre of the world’s attention for World Environment Day 2018. The Ad hoc Open-ended Expert Group on Marine Litter and Microplastics was established at the third session of the UNEA in response to UNEP/EA.3/Res.7 Marine Litter and Microplastics. At the fourth session of UNEA the mandate of the expert group was extended, pursuant to operative paragraph 7 of resolution UNEP/EA.4/Res.6 Marine plastic litter and microplastics.
It also needs to be noted are UNEA 4/9 on addressing single-use plastic products pollution (2019) 15 as well as UNEA 4/12 on the Protection of the marine environment from land-based activities (2019) 16 .
At the global level, UNEP led initiatives on plastic pollution and marine litter include: the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA) to tackle and counter the issue of land-based pollution (1995) 17 ; Global partnership on Marine Litter (GPML) (2012) to prevent marine litter and microplastics 18 ; CleanSeas Campaign 2017 19 ; Global Commitment by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with the UNEP to address plastic waste and pollution at its source 20 ; Life cycle initiatives, a public private multi-stakeholder partnership enabling the global use of credible life cycle knowledge by private and public decision makers hosted by UNEP 21 , and finally action taken against marine plastic litter in Asia and the Pacific (2020 –2021).
Targeting Elimination of Single-use Plastic in India by 2022
In 2018, on the eve of the World Environment Day (WED), India hosted its first initiative on the issue of plastic was with the theme –Beat plastic pollution to combat single-use plastic pollution and announces that it will eliminate all single-use plastic by 2022 22 . With the launch of Beat plastic pollution in India, it brought the limelight required on the issue of plastics and urges governments, industries, communities, and individuals to come together and explore sustainable alternatives as well as reduce the production and excessive use of single-use plastics, which are polluting our environment and threatening human health. Concurrently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s also committed to joining UNEP’s CleanSeas campaign (https://www.cleanseas.org/about), launched in February 2017, which aim of engaging governments, the general public, and the private sector in the fight against marine plastic pollution.
An important milestone was the development of the regional marine litter action plan by South Asian Cooperative Environment Program (SACEP), an inter-governmental organization of eight South Asian member states. This report was a first of its kind on marine litter for the South Asia Seas Region and was the summary of the report was launched during the WED 2018 in India. The report highlighted the regional environmental issue to the global community and public at large and how it can assist in protecting the marine environment from in the South Asian Seas (SAS) region and further. 23
In 2019, the Government of Japan and the UNEP launched a new initiative on marine plastic litter named ‘Promotion of counter measures against marine plastic litter in Southeast Asia and India’ (https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/japan-and-un-environment-announce-new-cooperation-boost-knowledge) to boost information and know how to develop countermeasures against marine plastic litter in Southeast Asia and India. This project will help in developing a simulation model for plastic leakage and monitor to determine leakage hotspots along the Ganges and Mekong rivers. Furthermore, the provincial and local governments in India such as Mumbai, Agra, Haridwar, Prayagraj and Patna along the Ganges will receive support to stop plastic pollution. The findings from the project would provide guidance to stakeholders and the authorities, who could further utilize the inputs for developing a roadmap to prevent plastic pollution in the river and marine ecosystem in India. 24
Another significant initiative is the India-Norway Marine Litter Initiative (https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=1603350) where UNEP’s role is to contribute to the management of marine pollution in India and support India to actively engage globally on this issue. This initiative specifically aims to strengthen approaches to tackle and prevent pollution from both land-based and offshore activities, in line with SDG 14 and its target 14.1, which by 2025 seeks to “prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution.” And finally aiming to contribute to the activities related to marine pollution in India by phasing out single-use plastics by 2022 but also supporting the Clean Seas campaign. 25
Additionally, UNEP is also working with the industries in an initiative called the Un-Plastic Collective (UPC) with the aim of minimizing the externalities of plastics, collectively in a time bound manner. The initiative is co-founded by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and World-Wide Fund for Nature, India (WWF) along with UNEP. 26
And, in response to COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, UNEP also came out with factsheets and report on waste management namely COVID-19 Waste management Factsheets 27 and Waste Management during the COVID-19 Pandemic: from response to recovery 28 .
A Way Forward
In the post-COVID-19 world when the focus would be on saving lives and livelihoods, diverting waste from landfills towards recycling can create six times more jobs and help in the management of mismanaged plastics. Interventions on plastic waste management can only be effective when there is effective waste management on ground-right from good waste collection efficiency to sound disposal. There is also a strong need for promoting the 3Rs — reduce, reuse and recycle — among all citizens encouraging them to switch over to sustainable alternatives such as cloth masks which can be washed, thus creating less waste. As the forecasts indicate, “if no action is taken, by 2050, there could be more plastics than fish in the ocean!” and hence the “time has come to address the simmering challenge of plastics pollution as one of the “common concerns of humankind” 29 .
Given India’s socio-economic standing, the problem of plastic waste management can be turned into an opportunity with a strong administrative and political will. As India is set to join the G20 troika in 2021 and will assume the presidency in 2023, it has the opportunity to showcase its leadership is tackling the plastic menace through spearheading the implementation of the G20 Implementation Framework for Actions on Marine Plastic Litter (https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/g20_summit/osaka19/pdf/documents/en/annex_14.pdf).
Considering how prevalent, intertwined and at the same time divergent plastic pollution is, a coordinated effort from government, business, and civil society, is imperative. We hope these efforts provide India with the necessary base to move towards a National Action Plan on Marine Litter.
Footnotes
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (2018). Beat Plastic Pollution: Good News from India. MoEFCC, New Delhi.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid
UNEP (2019). Single-use plastic products pollution, United Nations Environment Assembly of the United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi; available at UNEP/EA.4/Res.9 –Single-use plastic products pollution; as accessed on 22 November 2020.
UNEP (2019). Protection of the marine environment from land-based activities, United Nations Environment Assembly of the United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi; available at UNEP/EA.4/L.12 - Protection of the marine environment from land-based activities; as accessed on 22 November 2020.
UNEP (2019). Japan and UN Environment announce new cooperation to boost knowledge on marine litter in Southeast Asia and India, UNEP, Bangkok; available at https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/japan-and-un-environment-announce-new-cooperation-boost-knowledge#: :text=The%20new%20initiative%2C%20Promotion%20of,the%20Ganges%20and%20Mekong%20rivers; as accessed on 15 October 2020.
UNEP (2020). COVID-19 Waste management Factsheets, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi. Available at https://www.unenvironment.org/resources/factsheet/covid-19-waste-management-factsheets#: :text=When%20not%20managed%20soundly%2C%20infected,transmission%20of%20diseases%20to%20humans, as accessed on 15 October 2020.
United Nations Environment Programme (2020). Waste Management during the COVID-19 pandemic from response to recovery, UNEP, Nairobi. Available at https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/33416/WMC-19.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y, as accessed on 15 October 2020.
Balraj K. Sidhu and Bharat H. Desai (2018), “Plastics Pollution: A New Common Concern of Humankind?”, Environmental Policy & Law, vol.48, no.4-5, pp.252-255 at 254.