Plastic bottles at the pristine beaches of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands:

Located in the Bay of Bengal, these islands are a global biodiversity hotspot. The island is also home to giant robber crabs, crab-eating macaques, the rare megapode as well as leatherback turtles. Not only do they boast of spectacular ecosystems - ranging from tropical wet evergreen forests, mountain ranges, mangrove forests, to coastal plains - but they are also home to some of India’s most primitive tribes. This biodiversity, and its geography has made tourism one of the economic lifelines of the islands. However, both tourism and biodiversity has been threatened extensively due to plastic waste. In 2019, the presence of plastic bottles were found at several beaches. While most of them were of non-Indian origin, they posed a major threat to the islands’ ocean ecosystem.

Milk packets choking and clogging Delhi

An independent ‘garbage audit’ of 2018 has highlighted the menace caused by discarded milk packets in the capital of the country. Given the predominant unorganised nature of Delhi’s waste management sector, most of these milk packets are not collected and recycled. The audit, interestingly, pointed out that 57 per cent of the milk packets of two leading dairy companies have high-recycle value. However, most of these packets wind up clogging drains, floating in rivers or rotting in landfills. They also pose a risk of air pollution. For instance, when landfills catch fire, as it happens often in summers, chlorinated plastic on burning produces cancer causing-furans and dioxins.

These problems are not even the tip of the iceberg for a country that produces 9,200 metric tonnes per day of plastic waste. Plastic waste is roughly 5-6% of the total solid waste generated in the country. The overall picture of plastic recycling in India is grim, despite campaigns launched by the government. As per a report in 2015 by the Central Pollution Control Board, it was discovered that 94 per cent of the waste in landfills is recyclable. The report further added that most of this waste was mixed plastic waste likepolybags and multi-layered pouches used for packing food and paan masala/guthka.

There have been state-led efforts across the country to combat the challenge posed by use of plastics. India had chosen 2022 as the deadline for the complete elimination of single-use plastics in the country. However, the situation appears far from promising.