Plastic waste menace: Time for consumers to re-think buying habits

Plastic pollution has reached such alarming proportions that as consumers, we now need to demand accountability from manufacturers who use plastic for packaging their goods but refuse to take responsibility for the waste that they generate

Plastic pollution has reached such alarming proportions that as consumers, we now need to demand accountability from manufacturers who use plastic for packaging their goods but refuse to take responsibility for the waste that they generate. We also need to re-think our buying habits vis-à-vis plastics.

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The urgent need for concerted consumer action also comes from the fact that in the last one year, Covid-19 has pushed up enormously our use of plastic. Besides face masks, gloves and PPEs, our consumption of sanitizers , home cleaning agents and a variety of disinfectants have gone up so substantially during the past year that it’s only added to the mountain of plastic debris that’s toxifying our land, air and our water resources.

However, with most manufacturers paying only lip sympathy to the cause of environment and many civic bodies around the country failing to enforce stringently, even the not-so-stringent Plastic Waste Management Rules, consumers need to take a more active role in ensuring accountability from manufacturers. In fact the global federation of consumer organizations, Consumers International, has brought to the forefront the crucial role that consumers have to play in forcing corporate and government accountability, by declaring ‘Controlling Plastic Waste’ as the theme for this year’s World Consumer Rights’ Day..

As a first step towards this, we need to demand mandatory label information on every packaging material and container that uses plastic. We must know whether they are recyclable or not and those that cannot be recycled should have no place in the market and consumers should boycott all such products..

The mandatory label information requirements can be brought under the Legal Metrology (packaged Commodities) rules, so that it can be enforced by the consumer affairs ministries of state governments. Today, every package has to mention the consumer helpline. This helpline should also be used for answering consumer queries on the recycling programme of the manufacturer.

The same rules should apply to e-commerce food platforms too. They must use recyclable packaging and take responsibility for recycling them or use biodegradable packing materials made from agricultural waste or plant fibres originating from banana, sugar cane, bamboo, wheat and such plants. According to ‘ The WasteProject,’ the online food delivery platforms are generating plastic waste of 11000 tonnes to 14000 tonnes per month. And most of it is said to be non-recyclable single use plastic

Manufacturers (and also retailers ) should also take full responsibility for collecting the packing material /empty pouches and bottles that they use, for recycling. Businesses in fact should use the same channels of distribution that they use to sell their products, to also collect recyclable materials from the consumer. And it should also become mandatory for every manufacturer to inform once in a quarter, either through advertisements or through the website, specific details on the quantity of plastic waste generated by them, collected , re-used and recycled.

And consumer preference for goods --- be it cosmetics, fast moving consumer goods, processed foods, milk - should in future depend not only on the quality and safety of the product, but also on the environmental accountability of the manufacturer/service provider.

Of course there is one area, where consumers too have to act more responsibly and that’s with respect to carry bags. While large shops can well afford to give inexpensive cloth bags without charging for it, consumers have to carry their own cloth bags when they buy vegetables or fruits from roadside vendors.

According to government sources, per day generation of plastic waste in the country is about was 26,000 tonnes . Out of this only 60 per cent is collected and recycled. It’s time we stopped that 40 per cent from destroying our environment and killing us and our future generations.