According to Swiss-based research consultancy Earth Action (EA), on July 28, 2023, the Earth saw its first Plastic Overshoot Day, the point at which the amount of plastics exceeds the global waste management capacity.
The 2023 Plastic Overshoot Day Report by EA noted that nearly 68,642,999 tonnes of additional plastic waste will end up in nature this year.
It pointed out that India is among the 12 countries, along with China, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, Mexico, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, and Kazakhstan, responsible for 52 per cent of the world’s mismanaged plastic waste.
It pointed out that under current scenarios, despite pledges and increased waste management capacity, increased plastics production will lead to global plastics pollution tripling by 2040.
The report pointed out that of the 159 million tonnes of plastics (which can be used only for a short time) to be produced globally in 2023, 43 per cent (68.5 million tonnes) will cause pollution.
This day, just four days ahead of Earth Overshoot Day on August 2, is a wake-up call to the world. Plastic Overshoot Day sheds light on a critical aspect of the world’s plastic consumption: short-life plastics, encompassing plastic packaging and single-use plastics. These categories account for approximately 37 per cent of the total plastic commercialised annually. Moreover, they pose a higher risk of leakage to the environment.
When it comes to plastic consumption on a per-person basis, the world’s worst offender is Iceland, with annual consumption of 128.9 kg per person. This is 24.3 times higher than the yearly consumption per person of 5.3 kg in India. The global average consumption of plastic per person per year is 20.9 kg.
January 6, 2023, was Plastic Overshoot Day for India when the country's plastic waste outweighed its management ability. Plastic Overshoot Day is determined based on a country’s Mismanaged Waste Index (MWI).
The imbalance between the volumes of plastic produced and used and the world’s ability to manage those volumes when they become waste is the root cause of plastic pollution. The gap in waste management capacity and plastic consumption is called MWI.
According to the document, three countries (followed by India) with the highest mismanaged waste—Mozambique (99.8 per cent), Nigeria (99.44 per cent), and Kenya (98.9 per cent)—belong to Africa.
According to the EA report, India ranks fourth in the MWI, with 98.55 per cent of generated waste being mismanaged. India also fares poorly in the management of plastic waste.
However, Siddharth Ghanshyam Singh, programme manager of municipal solid waste at the Delhi-based think tank Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said, “The report's index can be challenged, especially with respect to the mismanaged waste index of India.”
According to CSE’s report, The Plastic Life Cycle, India recycles 12.3 per cent of its plastic waste and incinerates 20 per cent. The centralised EPR portal developed by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change also suggests India has a cumulative capacity to process 14.2 million tonnes of plastic waste annually. This includes recycling and incineration, indicating that the country can process 71 per cent of all the primary plastic produced.
To carry out the analysis, the researchers categorised countries into 10 archetypes: the transactors, the self-sustainers, the strugglers, the overloaders, the toxic exporters, the waste saviours, the waste sponges, the selective exporters, the exporting polluters, and the small-scale inward polluters.
Among these, plastic pollution particularly impacts developing countries without mature waste management systems, including India. These countries have been categorised as ‘waste sponges’.
However, 25% of the countries that EA categorised as waste sponges are trying to address the global waste crisis by absorbing waste from other countries but are struggling to manage their waste. Waste sponges have low plastic consumption yet a high level of plastic pollution.
This is worrying since the expected mismanaged waste in India in 2023 will be 7,300,752 tonnes of plastic. The country will also be responsible for releasing an average of 3,30,764 tonnes of microplastics into waterways.
“According to Indian Industry estimates, the total primary plastic production in the country is 20 million metric tonnes; of this, 43 per cent is single-use in nature. This means that roughly 8.6 million tonnes of single-use plastic waste is generated in the country —1.3 million tonnes more than what is estimated by this report,” said Singh.
The report suggested that India must Invest in waste management policies like Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to mitigate plastic pollution. It added that plastics that are not designed for circular use must be phased out.
India was among the few countries in 2019 to propose a global ban on single-use plastics. The idea was later widened, and the world agreed in March 2022 to draw up an international treaty on plastic pollution by 2024.
The UN Plastic Treaty represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spark global action against plastic pollution. However, to achieve this, the treaty must be adequately scoped, negotiated, ratified, and enforced with high ambition.
However, India abstained from furnishing its written submission for the second round of negotiations, which was held in Paris from May 29 to June 2, 2023.
While 70 per cent of the submissions spoke of restricting/phasing out unnecessary plastic products, a negligible 8 per cent suggested a moratorium on plastic production. Similarly, just 10 per cent of the submissions suggested looking at the entire lifecycle of plastic to find solutions, according to an analysis published in the State of India’s Environment 2023: In figures.
EA called for an ambitious treaty in its report and urged all governments to endorse and ratify it.
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