Check your litter box !
Dear Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji,
Thanks to you, these days, many of the states have the ideal of a Swacch Bharat as a twinkle in our optics. The starry, far away dream of Mahatma Gandhi to see a Make clean India will not be difficult to achieve if we all go far a matter of our national pride and an imperative for ameliorate public health. To set the ball rolling y'all invited several prominent persons to join y'all in the Swacch Bharat entrada and in turn invite more persons to commit themselves to this patriotic cause. From whatever we meet in the media and hear on the streets it is evident that the campaign is gathering force and popular back up. Litter-complimentary streets, tourist trails and village fields and ponds free from strewn plastic may actually be possible to encounter in India later all!
However, nosotros all know, a litter-complimentary India cannot be accomplished only by sweeping the streets and evoking national pride. We must start the process of cleaning India from the root cause – from the generation and disposal of packaging waste (amidst other such root causes). We must manage the disposal of factory generated packaging waste and we must piece of work with the consumers as well every bit the pack itself to minimize 'post consumer waste product' or litter – in other words.
A lot of good piece of work, trials and suggestions take already been fabricated by learned experts virtually managing 'post consumer waste' at a municipality or customs level in many parts of India. On the other hand about the packaging itself and its role in generating the litter in the first identify – we hear picayune give-and-take. Therefore, this is an endeavor by an 'insider' from the packaging industry to highlight a few suggestions of what could be done by 'on pack' actions to control the spectre of packaging litter.
Pace – Packaging Deportment for a Cleaner Environment
Keeping in view your fondness for creating memorable acronyms it is suggested that this part of the Swacch Bharat entrada could be chosen Footstep – Packaging Actions for a Cleaner Environment. This acronym will help to draw special attending to the urgent demand to re-think our packaging norms and how they must also exist made to piece of work for the Make clean India objective. Information technology must be added at this point that packaging plays a key part in protecting products and delivering them safelyand conveniently to the easily of consumers in the remotest parts of the state. For case, a major consumer production visitor like Unilever purchases and distributes 2.4 million tonnes of packaging fabric every year. All this material has to finish up as waste material in landfills or every bit street litter. But, as quoted on the HUL website, "More attending must be given to extracting economic worth from discarded packaging. Waste matter is increasingly becoming the new resource . . . it has value!" On the aforementioned lines, HUL goes on to say, "Nosotros accept decided to put a new focus on designing for a round economic system. This ways designing products so that resources are used in a cyclical way. Materials can be regenerated and constantly flow round a 'closed loop' organisation, rather than being used in one case and then discarded. We volition too put more than emphasis on identifying breakthrough materials, designing for recyclability and stimulating the evolution of more than advanced recycling infrastructure."
Given this ultimate objective of achieving a circular economy, which is being attempted to varying degrees of success around the world, I have attempted to codify just a few broad suggestions which if implemented at a policy level will surely help to tackle the packaging litter problem.
Statutory recycling
In India we have a natural inclination towards recycling. We make sure to extract the last bit of 'service' from anything we use. Nosotros must use this national characteristic to ensure more and more packaging is fabricated recyclable. Traditionally bachelor packaging materials such as tin can, glass or paperboard are easily recyclable. Plastic is basically recyclable too but becomes non-recyclable when used in combination with paper, foil or other non-related polymers. Very ofttimes in flexible packs different polymer layers are laminated together just to improve print appearance at the cost of recyclability. For daily utilize consumer products employ of such non-recyclable packs needs to exist statutorily restricted and more use of mono-resin, recyclable flick packs needs to be encouraged.
Once recyclable packs become possible fifty-fifty for small size sachets, portion packs or confectionery packs sold at every street corner the informal 'business network' of rag pickers in India will surely ensure that the tiniest littered pack is collected and taken for recycling.
Encouraging re-use
Well-nigh of usa are already familiar with the 'refill pack' – the cheaper version of a product sold in packaging that needs to be transferred to the original, more than expensive container. Decades of frugality and belt tightening have fabricated this as well a natural consumer characteristic in India. Innovative re-use of packaging is visible all round us – be information technology the bottle with its neck cutting off to use as a 'lota' or the flexible laminate used for covering a text book. This re-use feature could be encouraged to reduce overall consumption and indiscriminate discarding of packaging material. The virtues of re-employ could be played upward in public media just every bit Gandhi ji successfully fabricated an example of promoting re-use of old envelopes as note-paper.
Reduced packaging – More than loose sale
HUL has fabricated a public commitment to reduce past one third, the accented corporeality of packaging material it uses past the year 2020. Most consumer product companies are working hard to reduce packaging textile usage by weight or material innovation. The example of loose milk sales by Female parent Dairy without the utilise of consumer packaging is already well known. Returnable packaging is also a tried and tested option, which was abandoned by marketing companies just to promote consumer convenience. Ways and means to encourage consumers to opt for 'loose purchase' (from 'condom' outlets – like Mother Dairy) or pay more than for convenience and throwaway packaging need to exist devised.
Proactive borough duty marking
Pictorial marking on packs is non being used to its full potential. In a various population like India with many languages pictorial marking could be statutory. But equally a Green Dot is marked on a pack to denote a 'vegetarian product' other pictorial marks could be stipulated to denote recycling value or the segregation category of the pack. In addition just as statutory health warnings become stipulated to be placed on tobacco packs, for other packs likewise socially beneficial civic duty messages could be stipulated. For starters the Swacch Bharat message could be mandatory for placing on all packaging that goes out. It may exist noted here that the 'reach' of packaging media is ofttimes far deeper than impress media.
Enforcing extended producer responsibility
By enforcing returnable packs, recycling and re-utilize the consumer will begin to share responsibility for a cleaner environment. In the same mode product producers too must participate by their obligation to fund the development of waste packaging recovery and recycling business models. Installation of 'reverse vending' machines is one such way in which producers fulfill their responsibility. Packaging Compliance Schemes – such as Repak or Green Dot – running in Europe with subscriptions from participating producer companies are already an example of how successfully this tin be managed. For India a customized scheme involving the producer, the consumer as well equally the ever-entrepreneurial rag picker needs to exist developed.
WRAP – The Waste product and Resource Action Plan
Obviously decision-making the production of packaging waste and managing mail service-consumer waste material is non India's problem alone. The UK Government for case has created a non-profit section called WRAP – The Waste & Resource Action Programme (Aye, they too appear to like creating acronyms). It was created to develop the Government's waste management strategies and its mission is to aid develop markets for materials that would otherwise become waste product.
In the end I would too like to use this opportunity to invite the attention of the leaders of the packaging industry in India, as well as my colleagues and friends who can contribute their ideas and resources to lend a shoulder to the crusade of Swacch Bharat. Together nosotros can gather Stride – Packaging Actions for a Cleaner Surroundings.
Nosotros all need to check the litter in our box and – with your postage of authority – transport it on its manner.
Looking forward to a litter better India! – Clean India.
Yours truly,
Deepak Manchanda
This article was published twice earlier and information technology has been republished now to underscore the critical nature of the matter that is deliberated.
Source: https://packagingsouthasia.com/she-safety-health-and-environment/sustainability-health/check-your-litter-box-2/
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