Australian roadmap charts path to reducing India's plastic waste

Canberra [Australia], December 7: Australia's national science agency has released a roadmap to significantly reduce plastic waste in India.
Published by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in collaboration with India's National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) on Thursday, the roadmap projects that by 2035 single-use plastics could be phased out in India and two thirds of all plastics could be recycled.
According to the report, which is based on three years of collaborative research between Indian and Australian partners, India produces almost 26,000 tons of plastic waste every day, only 8 percent of which is recycled with a large portion going to landfill or into the environment.
It calls for investment in infrastructure, improved recycling capability and uptake of secondary materials and sustainable consumption to achieve its goals.
Heinz Schandl, an expert on waste management and resource efficiency from the CSIRO, said in a media release that building a circular economy in India would build value from its plastic waste.
"The roadmap also shows that diverting plastic waste into resources would lead to a cleaner environment, with 20-50 percent less greenhouse emissions, and improved air quality," he said.
The roadmap will help India respond to the requirements of the United Nations Global Plastics Treaty, which 175 countries agreed to implement by 2024.
"India recognizes the scale and complexity of the plastic waste problem and its interconnectedness with global ocean plastic pollution and global warming concerns," Rita Dhodapkar from the NEERI said in the media release.
Source: Xinhua