It's time to stop using plastic, argues an opinion piece in the Times of India.
"Let us keep using plastics, some of the most versatile, life-enriching and empowering materials produced by human ingenuity, while getting rid of the pollution, by designing every stage of its life to subserve the goal of eliminating harm in its afterlife."
That means banning additives that cause harm, like the one that makes tire dust when it finally reaches the ocean.
India is trying to fix standards for those additives, but it won't rely on Western standards since it hasn't finalized them yet.
The US and the EU already have them in place, but India's small-scale producers of plastic products are balking.
"What of the plastics that cannot be rendered biodegradable using additives?" asks the piece.
"The conventional answer is to recycle what can be recycled, or to incinerate the rest, with the biggest challenge identified in collecting the used material for reuse in whatever fashion."
Instead, India should focus on developing new processes for breaking down the plastic that can't be reused or recycled.
It's estimated that 430 million tons of plastic are produced every year, but only about 10% of that is recovered for processing. Read the Entire Article
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