Even as PM
Narendra Modi called for significant steps to make the country free from single-use plastic in his Independence Day speech on Thursday, several state pollution control boards —including TN whose capital Chennai generates 429 tonnes of plastic waste every day —have failed to submit annual reports to the Central Pollution Control Board (
CPCB) on implementing
plastic waste management rules.
According to a report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as of July last year, 127 of the 192 countries reviewed have adopted some form of legislation to regulate plastic bags. The report states that there are 27 countries that have legally imposed some type of ban on single-use plastics or on specific products. At least 29 countries impose taxes on single-use plastics.
In India too, the government has notified the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016. As per clause 17(3) of the rules, each State Pollution Control Board or Pollution Control Committee (SPCBs/PCCs) is required to submit annual reports to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on the implementation of the rules by the July 31 each year. Based on this, the CPCB is supposed to prepare a consolidated report on use and management of plastic waste and forward it to the central government.
CPCB’s Annual Report 2017-18 on implementation of plastic waste management rules released in November 2018 states that of the 35 SPCBs/UTs, only 14 had submitted partial information. A few states, including Tamil Nadu, did not provide data. A 2015 study conducted by the CPCB in 60 major Indian cities estimated that these cities were generating around 4,059 tonnes of plastic waste every day. Extrapolating the data for the entire country, an answer to a question in Parliament estimated that the figure would be 25,940 tonnes a day. Delhi topped the list with 690 tonnes of daily plastic waste, followed by Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai.