India's position on regulating single use plastic pollution on the global stage
Ahead of week-long negotiations involving 192 countries that are expected to begin in Toronto, Canada,
Next week on getting the globe to progress on eliminating plastic pollution.
India is in favour of “regulating”, and not eliminating, single-use plastic.
According to an analysis of various countries’ public negotiating positions by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a not-for-profit based in New Delhi.
In 2022, India brought into effect the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules (2021) that banned 19 categories of ‘single-use plastics’.
These are defined as disposable goods that are made with plastic but are generally use-and-throw after a single use and include plastic cups, spoons, earbuds, decorative thermocol, wrapping or packaging film used to cover sweet boxes and cigarette packets, and plastic cutlery.
It, however, does not include plastic bottles – even those less than 200 ml — and multi-layered packaging boxes (such as milk cartons).
Moreover, even the single-use plastic items that are banned are not uniformly enforced nationally with several outlets continuing to retail these goods.
Of the nearly 17 topics that countries are expected to deliberate upon, one of them involves “problematic and avoidable plastic products including single-use plastics”, which refer to sections of plastics that are likely to harm environment as well as human health.
The aim of negotiating countries is to implement global and national measures such as removing these products from the market.
These are reducing production through alternative practices or non-plastic substitutes, and redesigning problematic items to meet criteria for sustainable and safe product design.
The CSE analysis says that India, as of Saturday, has opted for language in the current version of the negotiating document, called a ‘zero draft’, that vouches for “regulating” instead of “not allowing.
The production, sale, import and export of problematic and avoidable plastic goods.
It has, however, agreed to “science-based criteria” for identifying such plastics.
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