The Plastic Waste Rules 2011 – A baby step instead of a giant leap.

- Dharmesh Shah

The plastic consumption in India, as per estimate in 2008 by CPCB was 8 million tons/annum, out of which about 5.7 million tons of plastics are converted into waste annually i.e. 15,722 tons of plastic waste, is generated per day. Of this, approximately 6289 tons per day (TPD) i.e. 40% of plastics are neither collected, nor recycled and find their way into drains, open lands, rivers, railway tracks and coasts[1].

Recognizing the magnitude of the problem, in February 2011 the Ministry of Environment and Forests notified the Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2011. These rules propose to address the growing environmental crisis caused by the mismanagement of plastic wastes within the country. Despite some progressive provisions like integration of waste pickers in the collection systems and a ban on manufacture/use of bags below 40 microns; the rules seem like baby steps at a juncture when a leap frog approach is required.

Some of the salient features of the rules are:

• Sachets using plastic material shall not be used for storing, packaging or selling of tobacco and gutkha.
• Municipal authorities should engage agencies or groups working in waste management including waste pickers into the system.
• Use of recycled plastics or compostable plastics for storing, carrying or packing foodstuffs is prohibited.
• Plastic carry bags of less than 40 microns in thickness are banned.
• No carry bags shall be made available free of cost to consumers. The municipal authority may by notification determine the minimum price for plastic carry bags.
• The municipal authority can ask the manufacturers to establish plastic waste collection centres, either collectively or individually, in line with the principle of ‘Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR)’.
• Marking or labeling provisions that mandate manufacturers to print the name, registration number and thickness.

EPR as a fig leaf!

Upon comparison with the recommendations of the Expert Committee constituted to examine the draft rules[2]; it is clear that the notified rules have suffered primarily due to the intervention of the plastic and packaging industry that has forced the dilution or removal of certain key recommendations of the expert committee. The rules are being hailed principally for its provision on EPR. In its report “to Evolve Road Map on Waste Management in India (March 2010)”, the expert committee recommended the following responsibilities for Manufacturers and Processors:

• Paying for both recyclable & non-recyclable plastics and their ultimate waste management options
• Providing incentives for adopting non-burn and novel technologies for non-recyclables.
• Undertaking mandatory responsibility of producers for R&D activities on plastic waste mitigation.

In a rather weak interpretation of the term EPR, the rules ultimately restrict the role of the manufactures to providing the required finance to establish collection centers in lines with the “principles of EPR”. This effectively means that the manufacturers can now get away with making a small contribution and not be inconvenienced with the responsibility of managing the waste it creates. Thus the onus of management eventually falls upon the urban local bodies that have already displayed adequate inefficiency in waste management.

No Penalties

Though the guidelines of use and disposal of plastics are clearly laid out, there are no penalties within the rules for violations, rendering the whole legislation toothless against violators. However, violations can be prosecuted in a convoluted manner through the Environment Protection Act, under which these rules are notified. An avenue to strengthen the rules is at the state level where the central rules will be used as guidelines to sketch out stronger state rules. Public interest groups and environmental organizations can use the opportunity to work with respective state governments in strengthening the local Plastic Waste rules.

Exporting Harm

The restrictions on manufacture and use of plastic sachets and bags less than 40 microns prescribed under Section 5 of the rules are not applicable to exporters. Included after the suggestion of the Commerce Ministry, this provision further weakens the rules as it does not consider the ground realities. With the dismal monitoring mechanism in place the leakage of the export designated carry bags into the domestic markets cannot be contained. Secondly, India needs to make ethical considerations on exporting such products to other countries.

End of the Pipeline clauses

Conversely, the rules also contains one of the most regressive provisions - Section 6(h) of the rules state “municipal authorities shall encourage the use of plastic waste by adopting suitable technology such as in road construction, co-incineration etc.” This is an extremely short sighted provision that fails to recognize the environmental damage caused by plastic incineration. The market uses a wide array of materials including toxic ones like Vinyl and in the absence of any collection and segregation system for different kinds of plastics excluding them before co-incineration is impossible.

Using plastics for laying roads is yet another toxic and end of the pipeline solution resorted to in a desperate attempt to dispose plastics. Because the plastics only melt in the process (and are not destroyed); use of plastics in road laying is similar to creating open landfills that will eventually disintegrate and be much harder to contain. Secondly, it is a common sight to see unmasked and bare handed migrant workers engaged in road laying across India, if plastics are included in the process it would only further expose these workers to extremely toxic emissions.

Decentralized monitoring

A positive feature of the rules is that there is an earnest attempt to decentralize the monitoring, enforcement and implementation. To monitor its implementation, a State Level Advisory Body consisting of experts, NGO, academics and government has to be formed under the aegis of the Department of Urban Development. The state Pollution control Boards/Committees are responsible for reporting on the implementation of the rules to the Central Pollution Control Board which in turn has to present a consolidated annual report to the government. The involvement of multiple agencies might ensure better efficiency and greater accountability in the functioning.

Informal sector

The most positive aspect of the rules is the inclusion of waste pickers in to the system. The Plastic Waste rules are the first to legally recognize waste pickers and will go a long way in ensuring that the rights of the informal workers within the sector are secured.

At a stage where we are discovering islands of plastic in the ocean and when cities are inundated because of plastic clogged drains – we need to think unreasonably. The Plastic Waste Rules 2011 are disappointing for curbing the “plastic menace” realistically.

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[1] Report of the Committee to Evolve Road Map on Management of Wastes in India – MoEF, March 2010 - http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/Roadmap-Mgmt-Waste.pdf

[2] Report of the Expert Committee to examine the comments and suggestions including economic instruments in the draft Plastics (Manufacture, Usage and Waste Management) Rules, 2009 http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/draft-plastic-rules-2009.pdf

Use and Throw! Is there no way out of the mess?

Dharmesh Shah

Last week after the yearly house cleaning we ended up with two cartons full of unwanted stuff and like most people we had no option but chucking it into the green curb-side bins. The garbage truck arrived at the same time and unloaded the entire bin into the compressor along with all my stuff. Now I knew that a lot of it, though absolutely useless to me, was still worth saving or putting to better use. I slipped into a momentary nostalgia and summoned up the call of the Kabariwala on a tricycle who would come home to collect discards. I still do see the occasional Kabariwala but I had also found myself easily adapted to the convenient use and throw lifestyle. However, I decided to follow the truck out of curiosity to see where all my stuff was going to end up.

After a long ride on my motor bike, past the incongruous IT corridor, I reached, Perungudi in the Pallikaranai marshlands of South Chennai. I remembered reading about the Pallikaranai marshlands on Wikipedia. Once spread over 5000 hectares, it is one of South India’s last remaining freshwater wet land networks ecologically assigned the task of storing and replenishing the ground water for the city of Chennai. The marshland is also rich in biodiversity and supports a variety of flora and fauna. Nearly, 61 species of plants, 106 species of birds, 50 species of fish and 21 species of reptiles are found here. Many of them are endemic (exclusively found) to Pallikaranai marshes.

The final resting place for my waste was a 250 acre plot within the marshlands where most of what I threw would remain buried for several thousand years. The city of Chennai generates nearly 3500 metric tonnes of waste per day, which eats into a bit of the marshland every day. It was a real mess and what really perplexed me was that as a nation we were building the biggest dams and laying the longest highways but failing miserably when it came to simple task of “potty training”. What could be more ironical for a water starved city like Chennai where we abuse our local water banks and then spend millions on piping water from far flung villages?

Garbage dumps like Perungudi forms a part of all urban landscapes across India, often remaining strategically ousted from the municipal limits of a city. On the outskirts of a city the waste becomes the black man’s burden, to be borne by communities marginalized from economics or in the case of India those ousted from religion. The areas surrounding Perungudi are perpetually surrounded by a veil of toxic* smoke belching out of the smoldering garbage and the smell of putrefying food hugs the air 24x7. Yet, I could see thousands of people living around Pallikaranai and several hundreds rummaging through the garbage piles eking a living out of what I threw out. On a social level, the implications of such waste-racism are far fetched.

I soon began reading about the politics of waste and made astonishing connections between everything that is wrong with the environment. Our lifestyles, obviously, takes the biggest blame because we are trying to run a non-recyclable system on a planet with limited resources. Plastics are a classic example, where fossil oil is converted into a something that the earth cannot recycle or consume, hence breaking the very cycle of life on which everything depends. Plastic waste is posing to be the biggest man made environmental challenge. On land they wreak havoc by chocking water bodies and causing floods and in the ocean they cause unimaginable destruction. In 1988 scientists discovered what they termed as the ‘Pacific Trash Vortex’ or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, in the North Pacific Ocean. The Patch, characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of plastics, chemical sludge, and other debris trapped by ocean currents, is the as big as the continental United States. Samples of marine life from the patch show the presence of plastics at the microscopic level, ie; inside the bodies of zooplanktons.

It is certainly an overwhelming problem, especially for people who are concerned about the future of the planet and looking for ways to make a difference. Fortunately, in the context of waste, it is fairly simple to achieve sustenance with 3 simple thumb rules –

Phase out plastics – Always be conscious of what you buy and refuse disposable plastics in any form. Once the demand for plastic declines producers will be forced to explore other packaging.

Segregate at Source – Always separate your wet (kitchen) waste from your dry waste. This makes the plastics, papers and metals in the waste re-usable/recyclable hence reducing the burden on extractive processes like mining and drilling.

Compost – Composting is easy and fun. This will offset your carbon footprint by several hundred tons. There are fabulous online guides like www.dailydump.org which give a spoon-fed introduction to composting.

Adopting these methods require very little re-thinking but will have a far reaching effect in saving the planet not just for ourselves but for our children too.

Published in Ritz Magazine, Chennai

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* An air sample at Perungudi revealed the presence of nearly 27 toxic chemicals including 3 that cause cancer among humans.