India is wrapped in plastic

This year, the theme of World Environment Day (WED) on June 5 was once again ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’. It had been the theme in 2018, and again in 2023. The persistence of this focus underscores a sobering reality: despite decades of efforts in collection, segregation, recycling and reuse, the global plastic pollution crisis is worsening.

Globally, only 9 percent of plastic waste is recycled, 50 percent ends up in landfills, 19 percent is incinerated for energy, and the remaining 22 percent is littered, burnt, or ends up polluting the environment. In India, where plastic consumption is surging, the challenge is particularly acute due to weak waste management infrastructure. While the plastic recycling rate is relatively high — about 40 percent — it is largely “downcycled” into lower-value items, many of which eventually enter the waste stream again. For these reasons, India has become the world’s top producer of unmanaged plastic waste. So, how do we actually beat plastic pollution?

First, it is important to understand the core issue: a profound disconnect between the inherent nature of plastic and the products we manufacture from it. Plastic is, quite literally, a “forever material”. It can take anywhere from 20 to 500 years to decompose, and even then, it never truly disappears. Instead, it fragments into progressively smaller pieces, ultimately becoming microplastics — insidious particles now linked to serious health ailments, including cancer.

Yet, this “forever material” is predominantly used for short-life products — items designed to be used and discarded within days. These are what we commonly refer to as single-use plastics (SUPs). A large proportion of SUPs is used for packaging.

From thin plastic bags to food wrappers and sachets, plastic packaging dominates our lives — and our garbage bins. It is cheap to produce but expensive to collect and recycle, resulting in its widespread littering. In India, the use of plastic in packaging has ballooned. Today, 62 percent of all plastic in India is used for packaging — far higher than the global average of 40 percent. What’s more, plastic packaging consumption is growing at 8 to 9 percent annually, faster than the total plastic consumption, which grows at around 6 percent.

If current trends continue, India’s plastic packaging consumption will nearly double — from 11 million tonnes in 2022 to 20 million tonnes by 2030. Of this, about 70 percent will be for packaging in the food, beverage and personal/home care sectors. It’s clear: we cannot beat plastic pollution without tackling the packaging problem head-on.

India has been a pioneer in regulating plastic packaging. As early as 1999, it banned plastic bags thinner than 20 microns. By 2011, this threshold increased to 40 microns, and municipal authorities were tasked with setting up waste collection centres.

The Plastic Waste Management Rules of 2016 further expanded regulations, raising the minimum thickness to 50 microns, extending rules to rural areas, and introducing an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework to make plastic producers responsible for collection and recycling. In 2022, 19 specific SUP items were banned, and EPR guidelines mandated the recycling of 60 to 80 percent of plastic waste by 2027-28.

However, the impact of all these efforts has been modest. SUPs, including thin plastic bags, are still sold, and plastic producers and recyclers have been found to game the EPR system by inflating recycling rates.

In any case, as mentioned above, most recycling is downcycling, which merely postpones the date these materials enter the waste stream.

The reason these rules have not delivered the desired results is that they have often been enacted without preparing the ground for transition. For instance, many states banned SUPs with just 90 days’ notice to the industry. If there’s one lesson from our 25-year struggle with plastic regulation, it is this: hasty bans and penalties don’t work.

What we need is a systems-level transformation in how we produce, consume, and dispose of plastic. That begins with recognizing that plastic — after steel and cement — is India’s third most consumed industrial material. Replacing it requires creating a completely new industrial ecosystem — one that doesn’t yet exist.

To truly “beat plastic pollution,” India must move beyond environmental laws and embrace a comprehensive industrial, regulatory, and investment roadmap. This must be anchored around four strategic pillars:

 

National Strategy India must develop a long-term National Plastic Strategy — a 20-year plan that focuses on developing and investing in alternatives to plastic, eliminating single-use plastic, cutting virgin plastic demand, and enabling a circular plastics economy.

 

Packaging Policy India urgently needs clear, enforceable guidelines on packaging design and material use based on lifecycle assessments. These must prioritize reducing packaging demand, incentivizing alternative packaging materials, and enhancing the recyclability and resource efficiency of plastic packaging. For example, multilayered plastic (MLP), commonly used in snack and shampoo sachets, is nearly impossible to recycle. Replacing it with monolayer materials can dramatically improve recyclability.

 

Recycling, INNOVATION Plastic recycling in India is driven by the MSME sector that is undercapitalized and technologically outdated. We need large-scale investments in advanced recycling — including chemical recycling, depolymerization, and other next-gen methods. This must be backed by dedicated R&D funding to support innovation in recycling processes.

 

Behavioural Change Even the best policies and technologies will fail without public participation. Managing plastic waste requires behavioural shifts — in how we buy, consume, and dispose of products.

This means investing in public awareness campaigns, school education, and nudging industries to adopt more responsible packaging practices. Ultimately, fighting plastic pollution is not just a technical challenge — it is a cultural one.

The plastic crisis is not insurmountable, but it is deeply embedded in our economy, consumption patterns, and infrastructure. If we continue to treat it as an environmental issue alone, we will keep circling back every few years with new bans and new themes for World Environment Day. ν      

 

Chandra Bhushan is one of India’s foremost public policy experts and the Founder-CEO of the  International Forum for Environment, Sustainability & Technology (iFOREST)