Lok Sabha Question No. 960 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-02-07
Subject: Pollution from Plastic
Ministry: ENVIRONMENT,  FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Asked by: Unmesh Bhaiyyasaheb Patil

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 960 TO BE ANSWERED ON 07.02.2020

## Pollution from Plastic

## 960. SHRI UNMESH BHAIYYASAHEB PATIL:

Will the Minister of ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  plastic  is  a  major  contributor  of  pollution  and  leading  cause  for  unnatural climate events and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether measures have been undertaken towards encouraging people for segregation of plastic at source for its recycling and reuse and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  install  waste-to-compost  and  bio-methanation plants in cities which are major polluters; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof and the steps taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER  OF  STATE  IN  THE  MINISTRY  OF  ENVIRONMENT,  FOREST  AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI BABUL SUPRIYO)

- (a) Plastic  waste,  if  not  managed  in  an  environmentally  sound  manner,  may  have  a serious  environmental  impact.  The  Central  Pollution  Control  Board  (CPCB)  conducted  a study in 60 major cities of  India and estimated  that around 4059 T/day  of plastic waste is generated from these cities. Extrapolating this plastic waste generation data from these cities to the entire country, it is estimated that around 25,940 T/day of plastic waste is generated in India.  Approximately  15,384  tonnes  per  day,  which  is  60%  of  the  total  plastic  waste generation, is collected and recycled. The rest remains uncollected and littered.
- (b) In order to ensure environmentally sound management of plastic waste and to prevent plastic  pollution  in  the  country,  the  Government  has  notified  Plastic  Waste  Management (PWM) Rules, 2016. The generators of waste under the Rules have been mandated to take steps  to  minimize generation  of  plastic  waste,  not  to  litter  plastic  waste,  ensure  segregated storage of waste at source and handover the segregated waste to the local bodies or agencies authorised by them or registered waste pickers or registered recyclers. For proper regulation and  sound  recycling  of  plastic,  provisions  have  been  made  for  registration  of  all  plastic recyclers with respective State/UT Pollution Control Boards/Committees. Every urban local body has been made responsible for setting up of infrastructure  for  collection,  segregation and processing, including recycling and disposal of plastic waste. The local bodies have also been  made  responsible  for  creation  of  awareness  among  all  stakeholders  about  their respective responsibilities.

CPCB has issued guidelines for utilization of plastic waste, the key technologies prescribed are (i) utilization of plastic waste in road construction, (ii) Co-processing of plastic waste in cement  kilns,  (iii)  Conversion  of  plastic  waste  into  liquid  RDF  (oil)  and  (iv)  Disposal  of

plastic waste through Plasma Pyrolysis Technology (PPT). ( C) & (d) The  local bodies  in association  with  the  state  urban/rural  development departments have been mandated to ensure compliance of the provisions of the SWM Rules 2016, including the setting up of  material recovery facilities with sufficient space for sorting of recyclable materials; collecting waste from vegetable, fruit,flower, meat, poultry and fish market and promote setting up of decentralized  compost plant  or  bio-methanation  plant  at suitable locations; facilitate construction, operation and maintenance of solid waste processing  facilities  and  associated  infrastructure  including  bio-methanation,  microbial composting, vermi-composting, anaerobic digestion or any other appropriate processing for bio-stabilization of biodegradable wastes;

As on date, there are 1480 functional waste to compost plants (centralized) with processing capacity  of  78,611  tonnes  of  waste  per  day,  and  564  plants  are  under  construction,  with approximate capacity of 22,753 tonnes per day.

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