Context:
The India Plastics Pact is set to be launched soon in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Relevance:
GS-III: Environment and Ecology (Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Conservation of Environment)
Dimensions of the Article:
- India Plastics Pact
- The Need for India Plastic Pact
India Plastics Pact
- India Plastics Pact will be the first Plastic Pact in Asia. [Plastics Pacts are business-led initiatives and transform the plastics packaging value chain for all formats and products].
The India Plastics Pact is an ambitious, collaborative initiative that aims to bring together businesses, governments and NGOs across the whole value chain to set time-bound commitments to reduce plastics from their value chains. - While the India Plastics Pact will be active in India, it will link globally with other Plastics Pacts.
- The Pact will develop a road map for guidance, form action groups composed of members, and initiate innovation projects.
- Members’ accountability is ensured through ambitious targets and annual data reporting.
- The vision, targets and ambition of the India Plastics Pact are aligned with the circular economy principles of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy.
The Need for India Plastic Pact
- India generates 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste annually of which 40% plastic waste goes uncollected.
- Also, out this approx. 10 million tonnes, 43% are used for packaging, with a majority of them being single-use.
- Plastic is a huge problem as it is so cheap and convenient that it has replaced all other materials from the packaging industry leading to production at unprecedented levels – but it takes hundreds of years to disintegrate.
- Petroleum-based plastic is not biodegradable and usually goes into a landfill where it is buried or it gets into the water and finds its way into the ocean. In the process of breaking down, it releases toxic chemicals (additives that were used to shape and harden the plastic) which make their way into our food and water supply.
-Source: The Hindu
