Context
With the objective to conserve the environment, the government has finally notified Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021. These rules prohibit identified single-use plastic items by 2022.
What is single-use plastic?
- SUP can be understood as plastic produced and designed to be thrown away after being used only once.
- These include everything from a disposable straw to a disposable syringe.
SUP in Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021
- India has defined SUP as “a plastic commodity intended to be used once for the same purpose before being disposed of or recycled” in its Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021.
- The identification of single-use plastic items to be phased out was done on the basis of a report by an expert committee constituted by the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals (DCPC), under the direction of the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers on SUP.
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Key-highlights of the new Rules
A central government committee has identified the single-use plastic items to be banned based on an index of their utility and environmental impact. It will be a three-stage ban.
- First category: The first category of single-use plastic items proposed to be phased out are plastic sticks used in balloons, flags, candy, ice cream and earbuds, and thermocol that is used in decorations.
- Second phase: Plastic products that are less than 100 microns in thickness will be removed in the second phase.
- Third phase: The third category of prohibition is for non-woven bags below 240 microns in thickness.
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The manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of some single-use plastic products including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene shall be prohibited from July 1, 2022.
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India’s initiatives to stop plastic pollution
- During the 4th United Nations Environment Assembly held in 2019, India moved a resolution on addressing single-use plastic products pollution by 2022.
- PM Modi was conferred the 'champions of the earth' award by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2018 for pledging to eliminate all single-use plastic by 2022.
