Are Businesses Ready to Beat Plastic Pollution?

Millions of tonnes of plastic waste leaks into the world’s oceans every year. Though these are local, the problem of plastic production, waste generation, and plastic pollution is global. Global plastic production has increased steadily and has reached 320 million tonnes a year. Of the estimated 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic produced since the 1950s, only 9 percent has been recycled and another 12 percent incinerated. Over the last two decades, the fast-moving consumer goods and processed food industries have become the biggest consumers of low-value plastics for their packaging and delivery systems. Policies aimed at regulating single-use plastics have faced stiff opposition from the plastics and manufacturing industries, which have historically linked the plastic problem exclusively to consumer behavior and poor waste management.

To highlight the pervasiveness of plastics and to ascertain responsibility for the proliferation of problematic plastic packaging in the environment, waste and brand audits were conducted in 250 sites across 15 cities in 18 Indian states in 21 days in May 2018.

This excellent report, authored by Satyarupa Shekhar (Director of Urban Governance at Citizen consumer and civic Action Group or CAG) and Dharmesh Shah, an independent policy researcher provides a critical look at current efforts to curb plastic pollution in India, and offers recommendations to drastically reduce and eventually eliminate plastic pollution. The implementation of the waste and brand audits and the publication of this report is supported by GAIA and the Plastic Solutions Fund.

Download the full report from this link: Are Businesses Ready to Beat Plastic Pollution?