Plastic pollution: environmental, health and economic impacts, and measures to reduce it

Introduction

Plastics are cheap, light and durable, which is exactly why their waste is a problem: most plastic is used briefly and then thrown away, but it lasts in the environment for a very long time. Plastic pollution is the build-up of this discarded plastic on land, in water and in the air we breathe when it is burnt.

Environmental impacts

• It does not break down. Plastics are not degraded in nature, so they stay in the environment for years and add to the need for ever more dumps; styrofoam and many plastics can take hundreds of years to decompose.
• Soil and groundwater. Dumped waste contaminates the soil and the groundwater beneath the dump site.
• Burning. Open burning of plastic waste releases harmful fumes into the air, which is why the Rules require local bodies to make sure it does not take place.
• Hard to recycle. Plastics are made from many different polymer resins, each with its own chemistry, so they cannot all be recycled together and must first be sorted by type; mixed and dirty plastic therefore often ends up dumped.

Health impacts

• Toxic chemicals. Vinyl chloride, widely used to make plastic, can after long exposure cause deafness, vision problems, circulation disorders, bone deformities and birth defects; using less plastic lowers this exposure.
• Disease through garbage. Heaps of plastic mixed with rotting waste attract flies, cockroaches and rats that spread disease.
• Food safety. Carry bags of recycled plastic may not be used to store, carry or pack ready-to-eat or ready-to-drink food, and bags must be in natural shade or use approved pigments, because of the risk to food (rule 4 of the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016).

Economic impacts

• Cost to towns. Every local body must build and run a system for segregating, collecting, storing, transporting, processing and disposing of plastic waste, which is a large public expense when plastic is thrown away mixed.
• Land for dumps. Because plastic does not rot, dumps fill up and more land is needed for them.
• Lost resource. Recyclable plastic that is dumped is a material wasted; collected separately, it supports recyclers and waste pickers and can even be used in road building.

Measures to reduce plastic pollution

1. Reduce first. Follow the 3Rs in order: reduce use at source, reuse what can be reused, and recycle the rest; carry cloth or jute bags and refuse carry bags.
2. Rules on manufacture and sale. The Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, as notified, set a minimum thickness of fifty microns for carry bags of virgin or recycled plastic, ban recycled plastic for food, and require compostable bags to meet the Indian Standard (rule 4). (Later amendments to these Rules are not covered here.)
3. Extended producer responsibility. Producers, importers and brand owners must set up systems to collect back the plastic waste of their products, especially multi-layered sachets and pouches (rule 9).
4. Segregation and local systems. Local bodies must ensure segregated collection of plastic waste, channel recyclable plastic to registered recyclers, use non-recyclable plastic for road making or energy recovery, and stop open burning (rules 5 and 6).
5. Alternatives and awareness. Steel bottles, paper or cloth bags, leaf plates and refill stations; campaigns in schools, colleges and markets; plastic-free events in housing societies.

Conclusion

Plastic pollution harms land, water and health and costs towns heavily. It can be cut down only by using less plastic in the first place, making producers responsible for what they sell, and segregating the rest so that it is recycled rather than dumped or burnt.