India the first Asian country to launch a plastics pact

Context

In a major achievement, India has become the first Asian country to launch a Plastics Pact.

About plastic Pact

• World-Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF India) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) have joined hands to develop a platform to promote a circular system for plastics. 

  • The new platform is called the ‘India Plastic Pact.

• The pact will bring together prominent enterprises on a national level to make pledges toward the creation of a circular plastics system.
• The pact works to create a world where Plastic is respected and does not contaminate the environment.
• The pact aims to keep plastic packaging in the economy and out of the natural environment.
• Supporting organisation: The statement mentioned 17 businesses, including major FMCG brands, manufacturers, retailers and recyclers have committed to the pact as founding members, and nine have joined as supporting organisations.
• The pact, like similar one, has time-bound targets for reducing, innovating and re-imagining plastic packaging.

Status of plastic waste in India

• 3 million tons of Indian waste was recovered in 2018-19.
• This translates to about 9,200 tons per day (TPD). The total amount of municipal waste is 55-65 million tons; plastic waste is about 5-6 percent of the solid waste generated in the country.
• Only 9% of recycled plastic waste. About 12% burned, while 79% accumulated in landfills.
• According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), at least eight million tons of plastic end up in the oceans every year.
• Only nine percent of the plastic trash produced between 1950 and 2015 was reused worldwide, according to a study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and others.

India Plastics Pact's targets 

• The India Plastics Pact's targets to be achieved by 2030.
  • A list of unnecessary or problematic plastic packaging and items and take measures to address them through redesign and innovation. 
• 100% of plastic packaging to be reusable or recyclable. 
• 50% of plastic packaging to be effectively recycled and 25% average recycled content across all plastic packaging.