Wholesome policies needed to do away with plastic: UN

As countries look for ways to tackle the rising plastic menace, a UN environment report has favoured doling out financial incentives to change the habits of consumers, retailers and manufacturers as well as enacting strong policies that push for better design and production of this miracle material that has become huge environmental and health hazards.

It is estimated that one1 to 5 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year — five trillion is almost 10 million plastic bags per minute. When discarded in landfills or in the environment, plastic can take up to a thousand years to decompose, said the report “Single-use Plastics: A Roadmap for Sustainability” released on Tuesday to mark the World Environment Day.

It warned that if current consumption patterns and waste management practices continue, then by 2050 there will be around 12 billion tonnes of plastic litter in landfills and the environment.

However, the countries are taking steps to tackle the crisis, said the first-of-its-kind accounting which noted that the Governments were increasing the pace of implementation and the scope of action to combat the use of single-use plastics.

Among the recommendations were specific actions policy makers can take to improve waste management, promote eco-friendly alternatives, educate consumers, enable voluntary reduction strategies and successfully implement bans or levies on the use and sale of single-use plastics.

“The assessment shows that action can be painless and profitable - with huge gains for people and the planet that help avert the costly downstream costs of pollution,” said Head of UN Environment Erik Solheim in the report’s foreword.

“Plastic isn’t the problem. It’s what we do with it,” he added. Among the key findings, the report states that Government levies and bans - where properly planned and enforced - have been among the most effective strategies to limit overuse of disposable plastic products.

The report recognises that single-use plastic waste generation and waste management practices differ across regions. The report also noted that the Governments around the world are increasingly awake to the scale of plastic pollution with more than 60 countries, including India have introduced bans and levies to curb single-use plastic waste.

While no single measure against pollution will be equally effective everywhere, the authors outlined ten universal steps such as targeting the most problematic single-use plastics, best actions to tackle the problem, assess the potential social, economic and environmental impacts and engaging key stakeholder groups to ensure broad buy-in among others.