SURROUNDED BY SYNTHETIC

Most of the items we use have some plastic in them. From the items on our bodies, to the ones around us...

items that she never took to – plastic shoes, marketed as monsoon shoes by most brands. “We would only buy glass water bottles and stainless steel tiffin boxes for the children to take to school. Plastic was only allowed in things like scales and pencil boxes. Plastic was a no-no in my mother’s house. She wouldn’t allow plastic buckets in the bathrooms or plastic crockery on the table,” adds Sen.

MOULDING THE FUTURE

As many avatars of plastic or synthetic, man-made items became commonplace, there was rising concern about littering and environmental hazards. This signalled a return to nature – at least among some people. Natural textiles, jute and cotton bags are all back in fashion. The fear of leaching, especially when exposed to heat, as in the microwave, has also started making many consumers switch back to glass over plastic crockery and containers. But given plastic’s penetration in our lives, is it possible to do away with it altogether?

For Kohli, the answer is yes. “Other materials were being used before plastic. We just need to go back...cast-iron and copper pipes, for example, to replace plastic sanitary pipes”. Not everyone agrees with Kohli though. The use of plastic became popular not because it was associated with pride, wealth or good fortune but for its technical benefits and superiority over other alternatives, says Ballani. “It has helped in the agricultural sector, is used extensively in the automobile industry.”

Ashish Jain of the Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA) insists that instead of spending the next 20 years looking for alternatives to plastic, the focus should rather be on policy changes that help address the problems associated with the use of plastic. “There needs to be collection at source so that there is no littering. And then it needs to be recycled,” says Jain.

Ironically, ‘use and throw’ – especially in bottles and packets – was used to promote the use of plastic in the initial years. But when the consumer throws away a plastic object, it needs to be picked up and recycled. A 2018 report by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) cites Central Pollution Control Board findings that plastic forms eight per cent of the solid waste generated in the country. The report also has other interesting stats – in India, 0.60 million tonnes of plastic waste end up in the sea annually; 94 per cent of plastic waste generated is recyclable.

Patra adds: “Recycling plastic helps save energy and natural resources as these are the main ingredients for making virgin plastic.” Research is on to use discarded plastic to generate electricity. Also, while there are laws banning the use of certain kinds of plastic, these need to be implemented more rigidly.

“Plastic was supposed to be the wonder product of the 20th century, but the toxic waste created by it is has been dangerous,” Patra says. According to the TERI report, the average per capita consumption of plastic in India was about 11 kg in 2014-15, compared to the global average of 28 kg. But it is on the rise.

“If you look at the soil on the sides of roads today, even if you dig up a few layers you find bits of plastic mixed with the mud. It has become so much a part of the soil, it seems like it was always there,” says Kolkata-based writer Alka Saraogi. The same is true about its presence in our lives.