The curse of plastic
By Debapriya Mukherjee-July 19, 2018, 10:38 pm
Former Senior Scientist,
Central Pollution Control Board
Former Senior Scientist,
Central Pollution Control Board
Maharashtra has imposed a ban on using single-use disposable plastic vide Maharashtra Plastic and Thermocol products (Manufacture, usage, Sale, Transport, Handling and Storage) Notification, 2018 to reduce plastic waste that presents not only an environmental issue but also a major socio-economic development challenge which impacts biodiversity, infrastructure, tourism and livelihoods. Also burning plastic in open air, by the people out of ignorance, releases gases namely dioxin and furan which are highly carcinogenic compound. No doubt, most critical environmental issue is management of plastic waste. To beat the plastic pollution, over the last ten years a remarkable shift in policies associated with plastic has taken place in different countries across the world. Many governments have started to ban or to put restrictions on the sale or free distribution of plastic carrier bags in countries all over the world, including India and Sri Lanka.
Maharashtra is the 18th state to ban plastic in India. The other 17 states in India or in other countries, who banned plastic use, have failed to prohibit plastic use to the extent of their expectation. The most possible reasons are the intervention of corporate brigade, other vested interest and most importantly attitude of the people. Thereby, success of the policy to impose ban on using plastic without availability of alternative materials in all respect depends on the fact that the policy must be consistent with the public opinion and has definite control target.
According to researchers, the recycle and reuse are the practical environmental solution to the problem of plastic waste but important task to overcome the key knowledge gap is to measure the extent, distribution and impacts of debris on land, rivers, estuaries, islands and along coastlines that practically neglected. The traditional mindset of the engineers and scientists in many developing countries, with scant regard to sound scientific evidences available in the literature, is the major impediment to success in developing management and remedial strategies of plastic waste by identifying and quantifying the sources, sinks, ? flows and types of waste. The plastic waste if properly collected may be used to produce energetic materials by converting inert plastic waste into energy (thermal and mechanical energies) via a light-controlled process through the simple chemical activation of plastic waste, including polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyvinyl chloride as being practiced in many other countries. Another approach may be the polluter pays principle that needs to integrate systemic thinking, with technological innovations and policy reforms at all stages of the supply chain, to promote sustainable practices. Most important component in plastic waste management is the "collection modalities". According to regulatory authority, more than 50 percent plastic are collected and processed/recycled. The figure stated by them needs to be verified in the backdrop of today’s plastic pollution problem. Still pollution problems origination from plastic use could not be mitigated successfully by recycle and reuse.
Now best alternatives are to frame a policy to ban plastic and to price charge for plastic use till cheap bio-degradable shopping bag is developed by using advanced science and technology. In many countries including India and Sri Lanka, many artisans are preparing bags, plates, bucket etc of various sizes and shapes using water hyacinth, coconut tree, bamboo, palm tree, grasses etc but now these not cost effective. But incremental innovation of existing technology will obviously reduce the cost in future. But the materials like plastic straw, which is not a necessity like plastic bag but it’s more of a luxury causing great harm to our environments must be completely banned. Moreover, there are paper straws, aluminum straws and bamboo straws that are much safer for our environment.
Obviously plastic bag ban or price charges had positive effects on consumers' behavior to reduce the use of plastic bags. But most important aspect is to know about the underlying processes to explore why and under which conditions these types of policies would be effective, and how to improve these policies. Imposing ban followed by penalty on plastic bag use may cause negative consequences as it may be a "shove measure" aiming to modify customer’s behavior, although the underlying process is not clear so we do not know for sure about consistency of behavior of the people on long term as there is no cheap alternative. But a plastic bag charge is quite effective to increase own bag use among the consumers in cities, towns and even in villages and it will be a sustainable approach. The financial implications were always related to policy opposition because the free-of-charge bag has soon and certain positive consequences (i.e., comfort, ease), while its negative consequences (i.e., environmental damage) are always uncertain and distant in time. The common people are not practically realizing this uncertainty at the time of using these plastic bags. Importantly, plastic bag charge may activate, on continuous thinking of financial incentive, environmental motives to bring one's own shopping bags. In front any supermarket counter it was observed that many consumers support plastic bag charges to improve environmental quality. Many consumers who carried their own bag to shopping after the policy implementation are now influenced by intrinsic motives (environmental and hedonic) rather than extrinsic (financial) ones. Clearly, this suggests positive behaviour change of many consumers in our societies in order to protect the environment and human health from the risks of plastic waste. Obviously positive change predicated on knowledge and awareness of the environment to some extent. Therefore, there is the need for education at all levels to inculcate environmental knowledge to sustain this behaviour even when the incentive would no longer be available. Moreover, all consumers must be exposed to a media campaign announcing the ban, the charge, and the environmental benefits of reduced plastic bag use emphasizing the role of citizens participation. This will reduce the negative attitude towards charge or ban the plastic and protect the behavioral change to use own bag on long-term.
What should be the best option to manage plastic waste depends on collation of scientific information and development of conceptual model to tackle this problem. Since a large number of scientific information is available, only sincere effort is needed to evolve the management strategy. In addition to these, most important task is to conduct detailed study on evaluating the motivational basis of reduced use of plastic bags after the implementation of ban by exploring the extent of the consumers’ support to this policy with the reasons of their agreement or disagreement ; their actual behavior changes with reference to the prevalence of intrinsic (i.e., protecting the environment, convenience) versus extrinsic (saving money) motives for carrying own bags for shopping in response to the policy implementation.
Most importantly the conventional mindset to impose ban on plastic without considering the citizens’ opinion can fulfill the environmental issue with little outcome; but not the equilibrium among economic, society and environment.
