India is banning a range of single-use plastics starting in July 2022. The ban will cover items including plastic bags, cutlery and cups. The items will be banned from markets as of July 1, 2022.
But environmental groups called out the new policy for leaving out several other common items, such as plastic water bottles and many types of packaging. India generates some 26,000 tons of plastic waste each day, much of which ends up in landfills.
Yet there is a loophole in the new legislation-select plastic commodities judged to be environmentally unsustainable as well as of negligent usefulness may still be manufactured, stocked, imported as well as sold from the July 2022 cut-off date onwards.
These commodities include plastic water bottles, and plastic bottles for food and non-food applications, diverse plastic cutlery, multi-layered packaging as well as plastic films.
Multi-layer and composite plastic films, ranging from plastic based crisp packets with aluminum coatings to pet food pouches incorporating whole layers of aluminum, are often hard to recycle due to their multi-material consistency.
In India, 43% of manufactured plastics-most of them single-use- are intended for the packaging sector. From 2021-2026, the sector is projected to grow by 27%. Considering this, the 2021 Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules appear weak as they do not truly address the need for a gradual phasing out of plastic packaging.
However, India has sought to curb plastic pollution since 1999, when the sale of thin polythene bags was first prohibited, yet the attempt has so far met with little success.