MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)
(a)to (d): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
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Statement referred to in reply to parts (a) to (d) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 82 to be answered on Friday, the 22nd November, 2019 on “Recycling of Plastics” by Shrimati Maneka Sanjay Gandhi and Shri S. Muniswamy
(a) With continued economic development, the demand for consumer goods is increasing.Among the various factors driving this growth, one of the most significant factor is increasing use of plastics by the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector. Due to its durability, strength, inert behaviour and low cost, plastic emerged as one of the most reliable packaging material for the industries. As an outcome, the increase in demand for plastic has indirectly resulted into the challenge of plastic waste management.
With an objective to ensure the sound management of plastic waste, Ministry has already started taking initiatives, for effective management of plastic waste in the country. The Government has notified Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 for environmentally sound management of plastic waste and to prevent plastic pollution in the country. The generators of waste under the Rules have been mandated to take steps to minimize generation of plastic waste, not to litter plastic waste, ensure segregated storage of waste at source and handover the segregated waste to the local bodies or agencies authorised by them or registered waste pickers or registered recyclers. For proper regulation and sound recycling of plastic, provisions have been made for registration of all plastic recyclers with respective State/UT Pollution Control Boards/Committees.Every Urban Local body has been made responsible for setting up of infrastructure for collection, segregation and processing, including recycling and disposal of plastic waste. The local bodies have also been mandated to create awareness among all stakeholders about their respective responsibilities.
As per the study conducted by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in 60 major cities of India, it has been estimated that around 4059 T/day of plastic waste is generated from these cities. Extrapolating this plastic waste generation data from 60 major cities to the entire country, it is estimated that around 25,940 T/day of plastic waste is generated in India. There are 4773 registered plastic manufacturing / compostable manufacturing /Multi-Layer Plastic manufacturing / recycling units in the country. Approximately 15,384 Ton/day, which is 60% of the total plastic waste, is collected and recycled. This recycled plastic is used is manufacturing of several products. The remaining 10556 Ton/day of the plastic waste, which is estimated to be approximately 40% of plastic waste generation, remains uncollected and littered in the environment.
(b)and (c)The Government has no new scheme or fund allocation for recycling of plastic. However, to utilize the uncollected plastic waste, the Rules, 2016 prescribed the local bodies to encourage the use of plastic waste (preferably the plastic waste which cannot be further recycled) for road construction as per Indian Road Congress guidelines, co-processing of plastic waste in cement kilns, conversion of plastic waste into liquid RDF (Oil) and disposal of plastic waste through Plasma Pyrolysis Technology (PPT). Further, the Rules specify that recycling of plastic waste shall conform to the Indian Standard: IS 14534:1998.
(d) As pronounced by Hon’ble Prime Minister, the Ministry is working on the principle of 6R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, Redesign and Remanufacture.) to combat with plastic pollution. In this perspective and to promote ecologically sustainable and green alternatives of plastics, the Ministry has subsequently issued “Standard Guidelines on Single Use Plastic” with suggested different set of actions for State/UT Government to minimize the usage of single use plastics.
The Ministry issued instructions to the offices coming under its administrative jurisdiction, Regional Offices of the Ministry, offices of Central Government and its departments, major PSUs, corporates, institutes etc. to prohibit single-use plastic products including water bottles, take away coffee cups, lunch wrapped in disposable plastic packaging, plastic bags, disposable food containers, plates and containers made of polystyrene foam, plastic straws etc. from their offices. Awareness creation exercise were undertaken in schools through Eco-Clubs operating in different States about ill effects of “single use plastic”.
Recently, on the call of Hon''ble Prime Minister, a three-phase campaign “Swachhta Hi Sewa” (SHS) was launched from 11th Sep, 2019, which ended on Diwali i.e. 27th October 2019. This campaign inter-alia focused on awareness, advocacy, collection and safe disposal of littered plastic.
Under the campaign,all stakeholdersi.e. general public, students, industry, governments and local bodies came together and collectedwasteplastic from houses, streets, public places like parks, beaches, markets, religious and tourist places etc. Urban Local Bodies, Gram Panchayats, Government organisations and others made arrangements to deposit the collected plastic waste at designated locations for recycling.Start-ups, technical bodies and corporates came forward with their plans to recycle the collected waste. Eventual goal of the campaign was that the plastic waste is not dumped on land or into water but is recycled in environmentally sound manner. The campaign has achieved its near-term goal of creating awareness on the menace of plastic pollution. Emerging out of the above campaign, the local bodies and States have set up systems for collection and safe disposal of such waste.
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