Dr. Parveen Kumar
Everyone deserves a healthy, clean and sustainable environment. A healthy environment is a prerequisite for well being of all the life that exists on this planet. Infact it is impossible for a society to exist, if we destroy the environment. Our natural resources like air, water and soil are a vital part of our environment. Unfortunately, from the last few decades many human activities have brought havoc to the environment with some irreversible damage to the planet. As such, it becomes important for every individual and it is the duty of all of us to protect the environment and conserve its precious resources. Owing to the importance of a healthy environment in ensuring the existence of life, the United Nations General Assembly established World Environment Day in 1972 following the first major conference on the environmental issues called on the human environment also called as the Stockholm Conference on the human environment. The Stockholm conference adopted resolution A/RES/2994 to mark June 05 as the World Environment Day. The resolution was adopted urging the government and the organization in the United Nations to undertake on that day every year worldwide activities reflecting their concern for the preservation ad enhancement of the environment with a view of deepening environmental awareness.
Every year the day is celebrated with a specific theme which highlights the major issues confronting the environment and which require immediate action. The theme for World Environment Day 2025 is ‘Ending Plastic Pollution’. Republic of Korea will host the global celebrations. The theme will focus on the menace of pollution arising out of indiscriminate use of plastics and to adopt and find out ways and means to minimise use of plastics so as to end plastic pollution. The name ‘plastic’, comes from the Greek plastikos, meaning capable of being shaped or moulded. Yet the material which seemed to offer so much because it is flexible is now plaguing the planet with its permanence. Plastic pollution today has become a global problem. Plastics being inexpensive and durable are very adaptable for different uses. The manufacturers choose to use plastic over other materials. More than 1,000,000 plastic bottles are brought every minute and less than half of them end up getting recycled and when they decompose they release harmful chemicals. The problem arises due to their chemical structure which makes them resistant to many natural processes of degradation. A large volume of plastic that enters the environment thus remains a mismanaged waste and for it to persist in the ecosystem for hundreds of years. Reports reveal that 7 billion of the 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic produced from 1950-2017 became plastic waste ending up in landfills or dumped. Plastic pollution afflicts land, waterways and oceans. Some researchers suggest that by 2050 there could be more plastic than fish in the oceans by weight. Living organisms, particularly marine animals, can be harmed either by mechanical effects such as entanglement in plastic objects, problems related to ingestion of plastic waste, or through exposure to chemicals within plastics that interfere with their physiology. Degraded plastic waste can directly affect humans both through direct consumption (i.e. in tap water) as well as indirect consumption (by eating animals) and disruption of various hormonal mechanisms. From the 1950s up to 2018, an estimated 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced worldwide, of which an estimated 9% has been recycled and another 12% has been incinerated. This large amount of plastic waste enters the environment and causes problems throughout the ecosystem; for example, studies suggest that the bodies of 90% of seabirds contain plastic debris. Since 1950, about 9 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced globally and this is equivalent to more than four Mount Everest of waste. Globally, only nine per cent of the plastic is getting recycled, about 12 per cent incinerated and 79 per cent ends up in landfills, according to United Nations. One can very correctly assess the amount of damage already done to this planet. According to experts, 94 percent of plastics are recyclable. However, India recycles about 60 percent and the rest is dumped on to landfills and in the sea and other water bodies. Experts also believe that plastic products have an end life and cannot be recycled more than three-four times. In fact, the CPCB has warned that recycled products are at times more harmful to the environment because of added chemicals and colours.
The amount of plastic waste produced increased during the COVID-19 pandemic due to increased demand for protective equipment and packaging materials. Higher amounts of plastic ended up in the ocean, especially plastic from medical waste and masks. In 2019 a report on ‘Plastic and Climate’ revealed that in 2019, production and incineration of plastic will contribute greenhouse gases in the equivalent of 850 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. In current trend, annual emissions from these sources will grow to 1.34 billion tonnes by 2030. By 2050 plastic could emit 56 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, as much as 14 percent of the earth’s remaining carbon budget. By 2100 it will emit 260 billion tonnes, more than half of the carbon budget.
One of the most talked of pollution that has received national as well as international attention during the last few decades is the pollution due to Single Use Plastics (SUPs). The United Nations classifies single-use plastics as products that are commonly used for plastic packaging and include items intended to be used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. These include grocery bags, food packaging products, bottles, straws, containers, cups and cutlery. Almost 66 per cent of plastic waste, comprising poly bags, multilayer pouches used for packing food items, etc (belonging to high-performance poly ethylene/low-density polyethylene or polypropylene materials), was sourced mainly from households and residential localities. The composition of our waste has also changed drastically in the last decade adding more plastics to the waste that we generate. About 47 per cent of the plastic waste generated globally, came from multi-layered packaging waste. Nearly half came from Asia, according to the UN.
Ninety percent of the plastic items in our daily lives are used once and then chucked: grocery bags, plastic wrap, disposable cutlery, straws, coffee-cup lids. The alternative is to take our own bags to the store, silverware to the office, or travel mug to Starbucks before it becomes habit. Each year, close to 20 billion plastic bottles go into the trash. We can avoid that by carrying a reusable bottle in our bag and then we will not have to purchase a plastic bottle from the market.
Legislations can also help reduce the use of plastics. On 2 March 2022 in Nairobi, 175 countries pledged to create a legally binding agreement by the end of the year 2024 with a goal to end plastic pollution. Bangladesh became the first country to ban plastic bags in 2002. In 2008, Rwanda imposed a blanket ban on the sale, use, and production of plastic bags. Even though it led to illegal smuggling of plastic from neighboring nations, and Rwanda was compelled to increase penalties, eventually people switched to greener alternatives. The European Union also plans to ban single-use plastic items such as straws, forks, knives and cotton buds by 2021. Plastic ban can be effective if users simply switch to alternatives such as paper, cloth or jute bags. The private sector entities have also pledged their support in this initiative. The Coca-Cola has pledged to collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle or can it sells throughout the world by 2030. PepsiCo has also set a goal of designing all its packaging to be recyclable, compostable or biodegradable, while increasing its use of recycled materials and decreasing its packaging’s carbon impact. SC Johnson has set a goal to send zero manufacturing waste to landfill from its factories by 2021, a process that will include increased reusing and recycling. Similarly John Deere announced a pledge to recycle 75% of its total waste by 2018. The automobile giant Nissan is all set to increase the usage rate for recycled materials per new vehicles by 25% in Japan, the U.S. and Europe. Unilever has committed itself to making 100% of its plastic packaging recyclable by 2025. Wal-Mart has announced that by 2025, 100% of its packaging for its private-brand products would be recyclable.
(The author writes on agriculture and social issues)