By Aditi Gupta, Ameya Aneja, Antara Balaraman, Nitya Kairavi, Ridham Patel, and Sharada Gopalakrishnan
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the authors and do not represent the views of YLAC as an organisation.
Versatility. Adaptability. Durable design. These are all considered god-like qualities. There’s nothing more fascinating to us than something that can effortlessly shift in shape and form.
This may be why we are, as a civilisation, addicted to plastic. It’s a veritable wonder material, suitable for an amazing diversity of applications. Humanity finally found a material it could fashion in its image, and it abused it.
The WHO advised the worldwide market to accelerate the manufacture of PPEs, predominantly made from plastic, during the pandemic. Between 2017 and 2019, UNICEF’s yearly acquisition of PPE equipment was less than 50,000 units. After the outbreak of COVID-19, UNICEF’s need for PPE had risen to 25 million pieces. COVID-19 made India’s already ambitious plans of phasing out single-use plastics even more distant, instead of legitimising them as symbols of health and safety.
The Plastic Cycle
Plastic is any synthetic organic polymer, constituted by repeating carbon units called monomers. Discarded plastic is littered or dumped into landfills. This happens because of poor waste management systems, prominent in developing countries and rural areas where there is little funding and no concrete waste management rules. Toxic chemicals leak out of plastic in landfills, posing a hazard to surrounding settlements and ecosystems. Moreover, when exposed to solar radiation, the plastic in landfills emits GHGs like methane and ethylene, contributing to climate change.
Plastic finds its way into everything. Plastic that leaks into rivers, drains and water bodies accumulates in the ocean, which churns it into smaller pieces called microplastics. These are consumed by aquatic organisms. Making its way up the food chain, the concentration of the plastic increases, with potentially harmful health consequences. Once plastics break down into microplastics, they are virtually impossible to recycle.
The perpetuity of plastic that we value has made this undying substance an enduring problem.
Global And Indian Policies Make A Comeback! But With A Few Shortcomings
India introduced the Plastic Waste Management Act in 2016, limiting the thickness of plastic to 75 microns. Thicker plastic is more recyclable and valuable, an incentive for waste pickers to retrieve them from the environment. This was accompanied by an ambitious single-use plastic (SUP) ban that announced that all SUPs would be phased out by 2022.
However, ban-only legislation generally has limited success. Blanket bans are not ideal especially for developing countries with limited enforcement capacities.
Another policy tool introduced was Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). This entails a commitment from producers to take responsibility for the disposal of the products after consumers have used them to the end of their life. Although an effective strategy, due to resistance and lax enforcement, the EPR for plastic waste management exists only on paper. Corporates need to be responsible for the plastic waste they generate, and the waste management system needs funding. Plastic credits address both of these.
Bridging The Gap
Plastic credits are transferable certificates representing a certain amount of recovered or recycled plastic trash that would otherwise have ended up in the natural environment. When a corporation purchases plastic credits, those funds are used to invest in recycling infrastructure by the credit contributor. With the credits, the corporation may now claim to be “plastic neutral” having taken responsibility for the waste it generated.
The most apparent benefit for businesses is that it boosts brand image in the eyes of customers and investors. Consumers and investors are increasingly incorporating environmental and sustainability concerns into their decisions. Making companies aware of this could encourage them to embrace plastic credits. Plastic credits offer capital for recycling institutions, and therefore create jobs. They provide waste workers with more dignified employment, higher incomes, and forges pathways towards sustainable livelihoods.
But most importantly, plastic credits bridge the monetary gap in the present waste management system. The procedures associated with minimising plastic waste require large investments and upscaling of current recycling businesses. It isn’t easy to raise such funds, and it’s difficult to see why the private sector would pump so much into this system without adequate incentives.
Time To Wake Up: Policy Recommendations
Given the expanse of the issue, what can be done? Plastic has become omnipresent in modern lifestyles. Extricating it from households and industries completely will be an exceedingly difficult, yet not impossible, long-term undertaking.
Concerning policymakers and government officials, we believe that Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) and plastic fees should take precedence before outright bans. Corporate-targeted policy is also critical. Only 20 major corporations contribute 55% of worldwide plastic trash, yet the present Single Use Plastic (SUP) ban only applies to small producers. Any legislation must contend with vigorous corporate lobbying, a challenge that has persisted for years.
Country case studies indicate that Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a viable strategy. Holding Producers, Importers & Brand-Owners (PIBOs) responsible and appropriately enforcing this, plastic neutrality can be achieved. A tax can be charged on enterprises to minimise their total output waste and encourage them to develop recycling infrastructure, and plastic credits can cover the residual waste. To eliminate middlemen (and numerous other administrative requirements) as well as to provide transparency in mind, a digital ecosystem to support plastic credit transfers can even be set up. This contributes significantly to the transparency of the process down the value chain.
India is among the foremost plastic producers on Earth, a result of a rapidly expanding economy without well-developed waste management institutions to keep up. This is a disaster for public health and the environment. The Indian economy still largely follows a unidirectional model with a weak recycling ecosystem and a mostly informal waste management sector. The surge in single-use plastic waste following the COVID-19 pandemic has only highlighted the need to build up waste infrastructure in our country.
Plastic credits can fill this monetary gap in India’s recycling framework by providing incentives to corporations to take responsibility for their plastic waste. A combination of acute policymaking, innovative solutions, and awareness and incentives to change behaviour can help resolve one of the most pressing environmental crises of this century.