Plastics – A Boon Turned Bane

It was in 1907 when a Belgian scientist Baekeland discovered the ‘first fully synthetic plastic’ while working in his lab – a combination of formaldehyde and phenol under heat and pressure – and named it Bakelite. The material found uses in Purma cameras, telephone instruments, Ekco radios, etc. in the 1930s and companies like Dow, Exxon, DuPont and BASF became the initial manufacturers. Around the same time, ICI used waste from crude processing refineries and came up with Perspex; another accidental find was an ethylene polymer – polyethylene – that became the most common plastic. It was strong, light weight, flexible, heat resistant and post-WW2 the world saw many consumer products made of this wonder material. Tupperware became a pioneer with their food storage containers. They even went on to produce artificial hip and knee joints from this material. Another path breaking find were Nylon and Teflon from DuPont.

Plastics have invaded our life like no other material – light and easy to mold – with buckets, pipes, ropes, outdoor furniture, pens, bottles, spectacle frames, safety razors, disposable bags, bottles, straws, plates, cutlery, packaging, toys… almost everything was made from plastics. This incredibly useful and durable material was everywhere – homes, offices, factories. Last 40-50 years could well be called the Plastics Age.

The Curse of Plastic Waste

And, then, the trouble started. The world woke up to the fact that plastic goods were difficult to dispose of. They would take hundreds of years to degrade in the landfills. PET water bottles that appeared on the scene as a boon – 500 billion were being sold annually worldwide – suddenly became one of the biggest problems world had faced. Used bottles couldn’t be burned – toxic, carcinogenic fumes were unacceptable – they couldn’t be sent to landfills because the mountains of waste would start growing faster and the bottles would just lie there forever. Millions landed up in the oceans along with disposable plastic bags and many other such items. Cattle would swallow plastic bags with the food dumped in waste bins and get afflicted with all kinds of diseases. Fish swallowed the bags floating in the oceans and eventually human beings ate fish with the plastic bags still inside. Even when the bags were removed during cooking, micro plastics remained in the food and humanity would ingest the same leading to many diseases. A recent frightening report reveals that even after you digest the fish; plastic will remain in your gut and it could eventually get absorbed in your blood and even alter DNA.

The wonder material had suddenly turned from a boon to a bane – indeed a curse. CPCB’s 2019-20 report talks about India generating about 3.5 million tonne (perhaps a conservative estimate) of plastic waste annually. Even though we are amongst the lowest ‘per capita waste generators’ in the world, this is a colossal amount. This 3.5 mtpa is incidentally double

the figure five years earlier. Our ‘plastics used’ figure was estimated at 16.5 MT in 2018. So we do seem to be recycling a very significant amount. An IMAC group report put this at 9 mtpa in 2022. A recent BS report -- probably biased -- mentioned that India was ranked 20 on the Plastic Management Index among 25 major plastic producing nations. I must add here that there are strict regulations in the domain and we are lagging behind on enforcement. So, even with 9 mtpa recycling and estimated 3.5 mtpa waste generated officially, anywhere up to 5 mtpa is probably landing up in landfills, on the roadsides and in the oceans.

Single Use Plastic Pollution

The government has even admitted in the parliament that “plastic pollution has become an important environment challenge adversely impacting both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems”. The problem mostly concerns ‘single use’ plastic carry bags. Stray cattle die trying to ingest plastic bags. Human beings too run the risk of toxicity on consuming food packed in plastic containers. There are bans on use of film below 50-micron thickness but, sadly, sab chalta hai. Ironically, despite our country having piloted – and got passed -- a resolution in the UN Environment Assembly in 2019 to mitigate single use plastic pollution, our own record is uninspiring.

The 2016 Plastic Waste Management Rules, updated in 2022, include “extended producer responsibility” that binds them to collect same amount of plastic that they generate for proper recycling or disposal but very few even have any plans to become ‘plastic neutral’. Bulk of the trash in India is collected by rag pickers and these urchins – working for a pittance under big kabadiwallas – are our potential saviors if only their energy can be channelised for proper sorting and disposal by the organised sector. What we need is strict implementation of the rules and heavy penalties, including imprisonment, for violators. We need all this now!

Oceans Worse Off Than Land

Plastic waste is causing havoc in the oceans too – probably more serious than on the terra-firma. Well-meaning citizen groups have carried out several cleaning drives at Bombay beaches taking out hundreds of truckloads of trash every time. These efforts received rave press reviews but enormous amounts continue to reach the once pristine oceans.

Recent news that an ‘80,000-ton cloud of plastic trash was floating in the Pacific’ made headlines as an environmental disaster – more so because it was “teeming with life” hosting invertebrates from 46 species clinging to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – as it was called by the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution – along with toothbrushes, ropes, nets, buoys, buckets, bottle shards and other waste products.

Such patches get formed due to circular currents and this particular one – spread over a mind boggling 610,000 sq. miles – mostly contains micro plastic shards, as reported by the

US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration that sighted the humungous patch nearly five-day boat ride from California. It was only when samples -- frozen at the site and thawed in the labs -- were analysed at the Smithsonian Environment Research Centre that they found signs of life – mostly coastal species that had somehow thrived in the extreme temperatures on high seas. These species were probably thrown far into the deep ocean by the 2013 tsunami. It is incredible that the coastal species survived on plastics in the high seas, along with Sea Snails, Blue Button jelly fish etc.

Now the scientists’ community is in a dilemma – should they remove the plastics and uproot life? Or is saving these species more important than removing the gargantuan garbage patch from the high seas? Yet another case of unfathomable mysteries of nature. The trouble with ocean patches is that – unlike carbon footprint that can be computed country wise, Nano plastic footprint are anonymous as ‘garbage patches’ get created far away from any country’s coastline and there is no way to track their origin. So, who would take responsibility of clearing the seas? Overall, we are up against a formidable enemy.

Work On Biodegradable Plastics

Some work has started on producing bio-degradable plastic. Again, BIS has come up with a statement that “there are no 100 per cent biodegradable plastics in India” and they have rubbished the claims of companies saying so. According to BIS these people are only “greenwashing” and are liable to face action. The Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology at Bhubaneshwar has still not cleared a single such product. However, some have been certified as ‘compostable plastics’.

There is hope on the horizon with common folk getting down to the task of reducing use of plastics. There’s this poor family in Gurgaon that has been engaged for three decade in making paper bags of from old newspapers that they buy from raddi traders and supply bags to over 500 shops. According to them “use of plastics can be reduced not by government bans but through education and social pressure”.

And, of course, recycling is happening at scale. A Hyderabad-based company, promoted by youngsters with Silicon Valley exposure, set up in 2013, has recycled more than 100,000 tonne of plastic waste collected through a large network of ragpickers. This company was awarded the Dell Circular Economy Award at WEF Davos in 2018. Armed with technology to clean inks, coatings and other contaminants they are producing near-virgin quality granules and products for several industries – from automotive to cosmetics.