Government notifies the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021

• The government has notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, prohibiting identified single-use plastic items by 2022.
• It is done in keeping in view the adverse impacts of littered plastic on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
• According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), 3.3 million metric tonnes of plastic waste was generated in India in 2018-19.

Key points:

• The Government has also been taking measures for awareness generation towards elimination of single use plastics and effective implementation of Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.
• The notification is in line with India’s stand at the 4th United Nations Environment Assembly held in 2019, when the country moved a resolution on addressing single-use plastic products pollution by 2022.
• Prime Minister was also 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.

Key point of rules:

• It mandatory for the thickness of plastic carry bags to be increased to 120 microns by the end of next year, and prohibit the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of several products with low utility but high littering potential.
• The permitted thickness of the plastic bags, currently 50 microns, will be increased to 75 microns from September 30, 2021, and to 120 microns from December 31, 2022.
• As per Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, the plastic packaging waste, which is not covered under the phase out of identified single use plastic items, shall be collected and managed in an environmentally sustainable way through the Extended Producer Responsibility of the Producer, importer and Brand owner (PIBO).
• For effective implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility the Guidelines for Extended Producer Responsibility being brought out have been given legal force through Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021.
• The manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of some single-use products including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene will be prohibited from 1 July 2022.
• It includes:

• ear buds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polystyrene [Thermocol] for decoration
• plates, cups, glasses, cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straw, trays, wrapping or packing films around sweet boxes, invitation cards, and cigarette packets, plastic or PVC banners less than 100 micron, stirrers.

Plastic waste in India:

• According to CPCB, the total municipal solid waste generation is 55-65 million tonnes.
• plastic waste is approximately 5-6 per cent of the total solid waste generated in the country.
• The MoHUA in its 2019 report titled Good news from India claimed that India recycles over 60 percent of its plastic, which was way higher than the recycling capacity of any developed country.
• Only nine percent of the plastic waste produced between 1950 and 2015 was recycled globally.
• Out of the nine per cent, only 10 per cent was recycled more than once; 12 per cent was incinerated, and 79 per cent ended up in landfills or oceans and other water bodies.