Embrace recycling to replace unessential plastic
Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech called on the citizens to eliminate single-use plastics by 2022, authorities across India have been exploring effective ways to make the goal a reality.
As the government is working on the contours of a national policy on single-use plastics while studying the availability of alternatives and the possible impact of the phase-out plan of these polymers from the market, municipalities have launched awareness campaigns.
This is also a good opportunity for the citizenry to learn more about the issue and reconsider some of the thoughtless daily choices they make in favour of single-use plastics items. Often these choices are governed by convenience and not so much by the lack of alternatives. But then what we pick as alternatives will also have to be examined for their environmental impact.
Take, for instance, a plastic bag. Any carry bag that is thinner than 50 microns is banned in Delhi because it is difficult to recycle it. But the ubiquitous plastic “punnee” has remained in circulation because of weak enforcement.
Even if we pick bags thicker than 50 microns, they are not that easy to recycle if they are dirty. Municipal officials SAID washing plastic bags that have got mixed in other garbage and then sending them for recycling involves huge costs, making the whole process economically unviable. Often, these soiled bags lay where they are, blocking drains, causing waterlogging and sewage backflow. Some make it to incinerators. Others land in dumpsites and stay there forever.
The cloth bag is the most easily available alternative but only if it is made from upcycled fabric. Any carry bag made from virgin cotton has a higher environmental and carbon footprint than a regular plastic bag because making it requires energy, water and a lot of effluents are discharged in the process, said Swati Singh Sambyal, project manager (waste management) at the Centre for Science and Environment. Instead, she suggested, investments be made into setting up a cottage industry where old clothes are collected from homes for making bags.
There are certain single-use plastic items we could easily discard from our lives. Plastic straws, for example, are unnecessary because we can drink directly from a glass or a bottle. For consuming drinks such as coconut water, we can always use paper or multi-use metal straws. Paper cups, which we often think are environmental friendly, are also single-use. They contain layers of plastic that make them difficult to recycle.
The use of Styrofoam and plastic tumblers, plates, bowls and cutlery at social events can also be easily avoided if we go back to our traditional ways when food was served in either stainless steel and porcelain utensils or disposables made from leaves. Over the years, use-and-throw items seemed more convenient because they require no cleaning or storage space. Experts said once used and discarded, these disposables have no recycling value and end up on roadsides, drains, dumps and waterways, causing the same environmental havoc that plastics typically do.
While community-based initiatives such as crockery banks for those who can’t afford or don’t want to buy steel or porcelain utensils and cutlery in bulk should be scaled up, an institutional push always helps. For the past few years, Kerala has been implementing the green protocol, which is a set of measures aimed at reducing garbage generation by discouraging disposables and using reusable alternatives.
In the 2015 National Games held in the state, caterers were told not to use disposable tableware, athletes were given steel flasks to refill and the Games generated 120 tonnes less trash than a gathering of such size normally would. According to the Kerala government website, in the last financial year, 270 tonnes of waste was reduced by implementing measures under the green protocol.
Penalising the use of plastic disposables should ideally cut the supply chain, but the economics of it and the number of people dependant on it for livelihood also need to be considered. Besides, as Sambyal pointed out, not every single-use plastic item, such as multi-layered packaging, has an alternative yet.
There cannot be an overnight switch but the journey to a plastic-free life has begun. Going forward, we can focus on demand-side management and consider a lifestyle that is less disposable. All it requires is a change in perception, recycling ideas from not-so-distant past and making them fashionable again.