India generates 26,000 tonnes of plastic waste daily
# India generates roughly 26,000 tonnes per day (TPD) of plastic waste, equal to the combined weight of 9,000 Asiatic elephants. Of this more than 10,000 tonnes are uncollected (ending up in landfills and oceans), the rest being recycled (for a maximum of seven or eight times), according to the Central Pollution Control Board. A sixth or more than 16% is generated daily by 60 cities, half being accounted for by the top five metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengalaru.
# Plastic waste in India is being attributed to rapid urbanization, proliferation of retail chains, packaging industry, etc. Two of the biggest food delivery startups are reportedly handling 28 million orders a month. They are estimated to generate up to 22,000 tonnes of monthly plastic waste in India.
# Crude oil industry is investing billions of dollars to produce more plastic products, especially in Asian countries, which will add exponentially to the generation of plastic waste and aggravate the problem. A study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry shows that plastic processing industry in India is likely to grow to 22 million tonnes a year by 2020, up from 13.4 million tonnes in 2015, half of it being single-use plastic.
# Bacterium Ideonella sakaiensis, discovered in a Japanese dump yard in 2016, has evolved to use PET bottles as an energy source. It produces an enzyme, PETase, which breaks down plastic bottles in a matter of days, rather than a thousand years they would take to degrade normally.
# Plastic waste kills up to a million seabirds a year. Fish, seabirds, sea turtles, and marine mammals can become entangled in or ingest plastic debris, causing suffocation, starvation, and drowning, according to Simon Reddy, Director, Environment, of the US based Pew Charitable Trusts. The weight of plastics in the oceans will exceed the combined weight of all its fishes by 2050.
# Ninety three percent of samples taken from 259 water bottles sold in different countries were found to be contaminated with an average of 325 synthetic micro-plastic particles, according to a study published by Frontiers in Chemistry. A sample from one of the world’s most popular brands associated with chocolates had as many 10,000 such particles floating in a litre of water.
# Plastics and chemical pollutants, according to Frederick von Saal, professor emeritus of biological sciences at Missouri University, are implicated in the obesity epidemic and in diabetes and heart disease, as well as cancer and reproductive problems and neural problems like attention deficit disorder.
- Sudip Talukdar