Single-use plastic resurfaces in B’luru amid pandemic

Bengaluru For well over a year now, Single Use Plastic (SUP) has made a resurgence of sorts in Bengaluru and other urban centres in India on account of the Covid- 19 pandemic, making it harder to reverse the dependence on the extremely polluting products, officials said

Bengaluru For well over a year now, Single Use Plastic (SUP) has made a resurgence of sorts in Bengaluru and other urban centres in India on account of the Covid- 19 pandemic, making it harder to reverse the dependence on the extremely polluting products, officials said.

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Though the total generation of waste in Bengaluru, one of India’s largest cities, has come down by as much as 30-40%, the proportion of SUP has seen an increase in the last one year as individual safety, hygiene, health and paranoia over fear of contracting Covid-19 has forced people to depend on products like plastic cups, cutlery, carry bags, packaged drinking water and other items that are extremely hazardous to the environment.

The reduction of total waste is on account of closure of marriage halls, small hotels and other businesses that produce a large amount of bulk waste.

“Since most of the factories like make irrigation pipes, cement and asphalting works are not operational, SUP is now ending up back in landfills,” said one official of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), requesting anonymity.

The official cited above said that though the quantity of waste generated has come down to around 3000 MT per day from around 5000 MT, the proportion of SUP remains the same, if not more.

He said that solid or dry waste accounts for 80% of the total waste generated in India’s IT capital, of which over 5% or around 120-150 MT is SUP.

In broader terms, anything below 50 microns is considered single use, according to the All India Plastic Manufacturers Association (AIPMA), which said that the definition is dependent on the end consumer.

Waste segregation remains just a slogan in Bengaluru as the sight of small neighbourhoods throwing garbage in one corner of the street is still a common sight. This, despite, innovative ideas like painting pictures of deities, cleanliness messages and even installing CCTV cameras.

Most city corporations are already in a bind over the rising amount of bio-hazardous waste mixed up with regular home-generated waste such as masks, face shields and other protective gear used for safeguard against Covid-19. City corporations are already in a fix over face masks, shields, protective gear and other hazardous waste finding their way into regular piles of garbage, which enhances the risk of the infection spreading, especially for pourakarmikas or civic workers, whose demands for better safety gear remains unfulfilled.

With poor recycling facilities and the Covid-19 induced lockdown that has stalled several sectors from functioning, the piling waste threatens to add to the spiralling health crisis.

At least one landfill, Mavallipura, in Bengaluru has now been turned into a mass-crematorium as Covid-19 tightens its grip on India’s IT capital.

The BBMP also banned SUP around five years ago and this was the highlight of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2019 Independence Day speech. With more e-commerce activities, plastic that comes home often ends up being discarded, officials and others said. The pressure on civic authorities has gone up many folds during the pandemic and garbage collection has not been a priority, especially in Bengaluru, which was well renowned for its waste management--or mismanagement.

“If you see 2019-20 and 2020-21 figures, SUP consumption has gone up by 14-16%,” Anil Reddy, the Vice President (South) of the AIPMA told Hindustan Times.

He said that a considerable amount of this SUP is used for medical purposes like making PPE kits, masks and food packets for relief efforts, medicines and industrial packaging.

He, however, said that industrial packaging has come down due to slowdown and lockdown.

“Almost all industries were running on maximum 40-60% capacity. Whereas SUP, which is used for medical purposes and others, have operated with 100% capacity,” he said.

Manufacturers said that India’s per capita consumption of plastic is around 10.4 kgs per annum as against 18 kgs in Singapore, 22 kgs in China and 34 kgs in the USA.

They said that raising awareness was more important than banning SUP.

Several large retailers in the country also use SUP to sell packaged goods.

Plastic manufacturers say that khullad paper bags are being portrayed as the solution, but these may be more hazardous to the environment as it is made from topsoil and wood pulp.