06 March 2024 – The Indian Express

Crisis of Plastic Waste in the Indian Himalayan Region

• From the top of the tallest mountain to the deepest ocean trench, plastic is present everywhere. It can even be discovered within the placenta and lungs of humans. Large plastic items that are disposed of inappropriately break down and fragment, creating microplastics. There has been evidence of microplastic deposition and buildup in rivers, lakes, streams, and the Himalayan ranges.
• The Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra river systems are only a few of the important rivers in India that receive water from the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR). Unscientific plastic waste is depleting the IHR’s biodiversity and contaminating the region’s soil and water, which is bad news for the freshwater sources that support people downstream.

The Region of the Indian Himalayas (IHR):

• It alludes to the region of mountains in India that contains the whole Himalayan range. It extends from Jammu and Kashmir in northwest India to the northeastern states that share a border with Tibet (China), Bhutan, and Nepal.
• It includes two UTs (Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh) and eleven states (Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, all northeast states, and West Bengal).

What Recent Signs of Increasing Plastic Pollution in IHR Are There?

SDC Report:

• A sobering reminder of the problem comes from a recent report published by the Social Development for Communities (SDC) Foundation Dehradun, which highlights the predicament of towns in Uttarakhand that are drowning in plastic garbage.

Results from the NGT:

• The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board, the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) have all received notices regarding rubbish dumping by visitors and commercial businesses in environmentally vulnerable areas.
• This highlights the problems associated with rubbish dumping that occurs without consequence and without much of a deterrent from visitors and businesses.

An observation made at the Ramsar site Deepor Beel:

• Rather than fish from the wetland, larger adjutant storks have been eating on the plastic garbage in the landfill at the Deepor Beel Ramsar site in Assam. River pollution in Manipur, including the Nambul, is on the rise, according to numerous reports.

Himalayan Cleanup Audit Results (2018–21):

• The Integrated Mountain Initiative alongside Zero trash Himalayas and the National Productivity Council of India undertook the Himalayan Clean up (2018–21), which revealed a rise in plastic trash, particularly non-recyclables, in the Indian Himalayan Region.
• According to the results of the Himalayan Cleanup (2022) waste audit, plastic made up 92.7% of the rubbish, with non-recyclable plastic accounting for 72% of the waste.

What worries India has about the management of plastic waste?

Very High Index of Mismanaged Waste (MWI):

• It is startling to see that India achieved its plastic overshoot day on January 6, 2023, given the statements made on the CPCB’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) portal about the system’s capacity to handle plastic trash. With a 98.55% MWI, India has one of the highest rates of plastic use and waste management in the world (after Kenya, Nigeria, and Mozambique).

Low Rate of Recycling of Waste:

• Sixty percent of plastic garbage is recycled, according to the Indian government. According to a statistical analysis conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) using data from the CPCB, just 12% of India’s plastic garbage is recycled mechanically.
• We burn 20% of our plastic garbage and yet term it “recycling,” while 68% of plastic waste goes unaccounted for. Approximately 20% of this waste is directed towards end-of-life solutions including co-incineration, plastic-to-fuel, and road construction.

Failure to Acknowledge the Hills’ Needs:

• The legal framework for managing plastic trash in India is made up of the Solid trash Management Rules (SWM) 2016, Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rules 2016, and EPR 2022 (at the national level).
• Although the SWM acknowledges the unique demands of hilly regions, these needs are not taken into account when formulating mandates for local organisations and Producers, Importers, and Brand Owners (PIBOs). In reality, neither PWM nor EPR have acknowledged the unique needs of the hills.

Leachate From Waste Disposals:

• On paper, waste is segregated, yet upon closer inspection, landfills are brimming with a variety of waste materials. While the emissions from such mixed garbage cause air pollution, the leachate from the waste causes contamination to the land and groundwater. There is still a significant amount of recyclable plastic garbage in landfills.

What Are the Various Causes of the Increase in Plastic Pollution in IHR?

• According to reports from the World Bank and NITI Aayog, the IHR currently produces between five and eight million metric tonnes of garbage annually. With almost 400 million visitors visiting them since 2010, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh rank among the states with the worst solid waste management records.
• More than 60% of waste is burned, swept downstream into important rivers like the Ganga, Yamuna, and Sutlej, or dumped due to inadequate infrastructure for waste collection and disposal.
• Furthermore, the over 30,000 species of local flora and animals that are negatively impacted by rubbish disposal, some of which are unique and endangered.

Shifting Consumption Trends in Rural Communities:

• Most Himalayan settlements now have access to durables and consumables, particularly Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) in multilayered plastic packaging, thanks to recent developments. Large-scale replacement of household objects made of cloth, wood, leaves, bamboo, and other locally available materials with less expensive plastic items is happening quickly.
• For example, the thousands of visitors that visit Uttarkashi each year and the families within the Govind Wildlife Sanctuary (a snow leopard protection area) produce about 15 metric tonnes of dry trash per month, all of which is burned or disposed of in the nearby forest, river, or slope.

High Volume of Travellers and Single-Use Items:

• Travellers are pouring into the Himalayan states in greater numbers as a result of increased road, rail, and aviation choices. They also travel more isolated rural areas and trekking routes. Because of their urban consumption patterns, locals are influenced to buy and sell packaged FMCGs, PET bottles, and single-use plastics in order to satisfy the significant demand created by the travel, dining, and hospitality industries. This causes a large-scale problem of rubbish burning, dumping, and littering in and around tourist destinations.

Unfavourable Terrain for Transportation, etc.:

• The challenging terrain of the Himalayas raises operating expenses, complicates logistics of transportation, and extends the distance to the closest recycling factories. Wet waste processing (composting or biogas units) and dry waste processing (material recovery facilities) are few in the IHR. Usually located close to riverbanks, the designated informal dumping sites allow the waste to be carried away during the monsoon.

Extended Producer Responsibility’s (EPR) scope is lacking:

• Due to the high cost of collection, most FMCG brands do not invest in reverse logistics in hilly areas, despite the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change’s mandate that they set up and support reverse logistics for their plastic waste as part of their EPR mandate under the Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016.
• Furthermore, a large number of the goods sold in these communities are made by regional companies that lack the resources to engage in reverse logistics. Travellers bring goods from the more well-known companies with them, and the trash they leave behind is neither recycled nor collected.
• Absence of Convergence and Enforcement of Policies:
• The IHR has irregular waste collection, and rubbish is promptly disposed of in rivers, downhill, or at approved locations without environmental clearance. Only high-value commodities like PET plastic, metals, cardboard, and glass are recovered in large part by unofficial waste pickers and scrap merchants.
• Moreover, this kind of rubbish collecting is still restricted to cities and tourist destinations. The fact that most gramme panchayats and village or block development officials lack the necessary tools to deal with the waste that local and migrant populations are producing at an exponentially higher rate does not help.

Inefficient Coordination Across Government Agencies:

• A significant obstacle is the ineffective cooperation between different government agencies. For example, the Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin is managed by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, and each block receives Rs 16 lakh towards the construction of a plastic waste management unit. The panchayati raj department is in charge of making sure that these monies are used as efficiently as possible.
• But SWAJAL’s involvement is restricted to building the facility; its operations manager remains a mystery. Gramme pradhans are reluctant to use these grants for regular operations since they need geotagged proof of completion, which is impractical for everyday operations.

Unofficial Livelihoods and Social Stigma:

• Working with waste as a source of income carries a societal stigma. Informal migrant labourers are engaged in rubbish collection and sorting in the majority of urban regions. But these migratory labourers do not come to rural areas, which exacerbates the situation and necessitates immediate, war-like action.

Insufficient Funding Ability:

• Another crucial point to remember is that, in comparison to villages in the plains, which have a far higher population density, the per capita amount given by the central government to gramme panchayats under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin guidelines is insufficient to meet the expenses in hilly areas due to the widely dispersed population and challenging terrain.

What Different Actions Are Needed to Reduce the Crisis in IHR?

Making Enough Investments:

• Because the issue is systemic, no one institution or stakeholder can be held solely accountable for it. The waste management issue at the IHR is undoubtedly urgent, but the current level of effort being put into solving it is out of proportion to how serious the problem is.
• Considering how much money has been spent globally to combat ocean plastic pollution, it is past due that we allocate the necessary funds to safeguard the majestic Himalayas.

Organising With Rural People:

• Gramme panchayats, village development officers, and national organisations like the National Rural Livelihoods Mission must collaborate and work with rural residents to overcome this stigma and support efforts to generate livelihood opportunities for them in waste collection operations, material recovery, and market links for alternative products. This is in addition to addressing the environmental challenges caused by waste pollution.

KGGTF and the World Bank Study:

• The World Bank and the Korean Green Growth Trust Fund (KGGTF) launched a regional research to fill in the data gaps and assess the state of plastic waste management (PWM) in the hilly areas of Pakistan, India, and Nepal.
• A methodical and progressive approach to enhancing PWM services in the hilly regions of India, Nepal, and Pakistan is one of the study’s main recommendations.
• Given that there are multiple SWM-related tasks that are completed concurrently, the phased approach would be most appropriate.
• A multi-tiered approach makes sure that the government and other stakeholders can handle all the moving parts of the waste management cycle, such as institutional capacity, policy formulation and enforcement, changing waste producers’ behaviours, and technological advancements.

The necessity of implementing state-specific initiatives:

• States all around the IHR have also been implementing a number of measures, such as passing legislation, to stop this threat, and other States must follow suit:
• There are specific state regulations prohibiting the use of plastics in Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
• Since 2019, Himachal Pradesh has implemented a buy-back strategy for single-use and non-recyclable plastic garbage.
• Sikkim has a pretty strong regulatory framework and outlawed the use of packaged mineral water as of January 2022.
• In terms of regulations, Mizoram has taken the initiative; in 2019, the Aizawal Municipal Corporation created by-laws under the PWM.
• To end single-use plastic, Tripura has changed its policies, passed local ordinances, and established a task group at the state level.

Sorting Out Various Plastic Types:

• Separating trash at the source is required by the SWM/PWM/EPR collective mandate. Any approach to dispose of plastic waste in a sustainable and scientific manner must first separate different types of plastics from one another as well as from other debris.
• Waste segregation and public participation in this undertaking, aided by ongoing public education programmes, are essential.

Giving Local Bodies More Authority:

• Local bodies are responsible for waste management under the SWM, PWM, and EPR, from collection to scientific disposal. As required by the EPR, they might enlist the assistance of PIBOs to set up and operationalize the plastic waste management system. Even while local governments are the centre of the nation’s waste management system, there hasn’t been a corresponding devolution of power to them yet.
• For each tonne of plastic trash handled, a PIBO in the IHR may receive an EPR certificate worth more than one earned elsewhere in the nation.

Traditional Institutions Included:

• Very few local authorities have created bylaws to operationalize the mandate, and very few States have passed model bylaws. The mission to guarantee cooperation between PIBOs and municipal entities is unclear.
• When it comes to the IHR (common in several northeastern states), traditional institutions must be included in the definition of local bodies. It is significant to remember that funding for these established organisations was provided by the Fifteenth Finance Commission and the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).

Combining Waste Management With Rich Biodiversity:

• The IHR’s great biodiversity, ecological sensitivity, and fragility necessitate the optimal allocation of resources and support, in addition to taking into account the unique geographic difficulties associated with managing trash in mountains.

Filling up Data Gaps:

• It is necessary to close data gaps about the quantity and kind of garbage produced in the Indian Himalayan Region States. To build the infrastructure, keep it up to date, and manage operations, convergent programmes like SBM, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005, and grants from the Finance Commission could be employed.

Increasing Resources as Soon as Possible:

• Additional funding could be obtained through the Swachh Bharat Kosh Trust, which was established to help direct charitable donations and corporate social responsibility funds to this initiative.
• The Smart Cities Scheme, which selects many cities in the Indian Himalayan Region, and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) should collaborate on the problem of scientific waste management and the elimination of plastic from Indian Himalayan Region cities.