
India is the world's biggest plastic polluter: What it means for our health
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated June 23, 2025)At the sprawling 250-acre plastic bazaar at Tikri Kalan on the Delhi-Haryana border, towering mounds of white PP raffia bags stuffed with plastic scrap line the dusty, winding lanes. The plastic is segregated into at least 100 distinct varieties, ensuring each sack contains only one kind of plastic, since mixed plastic cannot be processed together. 'Plastic waste from every district of India comes here,' says Vijay Sharma, office secretary, PVC and Plastic Waste Dealers Association. Between 30 and 50 trucks, each of 10-15 tonne capacity, arrive daily, says Sharma. Other traders estimate the figure to be much higher—200-250 trucks. Which means only one thing: the presence of a massive informal market—much larger than the formal one—right on Tikri Kalan's periphery.advertisementAnd thereby hangs a whole tale. In a 2022 analysis of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data from 23 states and Union territories, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) concluded that only 12 per cent of plastic waste in India is recycled, 20 per cent of it is burned while a significant 70 per cent is unaccounted-for, likely ending up in landfills or dumpyards and along roadsides. No wonder India emerged as the world's largest plastic emitter in a September 2024 study published in science journal Nature, which based its conclusions on 2020 data gleaned from 50,702 municipalities worldwide. India contributes 9.3million tonnes (Mt), or 20 per cent, to the 52.1 Mt of the annual global plastic waste emissions. This refers to the waste emitted into the environment that is not subject to any form of management or control. An estimated 5.8 Mt of plastic is openly burned in India, releasing poisonous gases; 3.5 Mt escapes as loose plastic in the environment that eventually enters the oceans. This is not counting the enormous quantum that gets collected and thrown in mismanaged sites, where it eventually decomposes and leaches deadly toxins into the soil. In an e-mail, the authors of the study told india today that the total plastic waste generated in India is 27.8 Mt, far, far higher than the 3.5 Mt the CPCB estimated for 2020 (see The India Stack). As the study says, official figures in India do not include rural areas, open burning of uncollected waste or waste recycled by the informal sector.advertisement
How did India get here? Plastic first came to India in the form of polystyrene circa 1957; it would take a few decades for other forms to be produced in India. The appeal of the material lies in its very name—derived from the Greek word 'plastikos', meaning that which can be shaped or moulded. A synthetic material made from fossil fuels like petroleum or natural gas, plastic is constructed out of long chains of molecules called polymers, much like hundreds of paper clips strung together.
The fact that it can be moulded into any shape when heated adds to the material's versatility. Based on their behaviour when heated, plastics can be divided into two broad categories—thermoplastics, which become soft upon heating, can be melted and reshaped 2-3 times, and are therefore recyclable; and thermosets, which can only be moulded once after heating, and thus cannot be recycled. The first include the familiar PET (polyethylene terephthalate) water bottles, PVC pipes, polypropylenes that are used in disposable cups and food containers, and the polyethylene used in shopping bags etc. (see Waste to Wealth). Thermosets include bakelite, melamine and vulcanised rubber found in shoe soles, car tyres, rubber hoses etc.Lightweight, durable, waterproof and inexpensive to boot, it was a matter of time before plastic began to be used across industries—from food and fashion to construction, automotive and healthcare—as well as in homes, an indispensable accessory when you went out shopping, whether for groceries or for garments. As the population and economy boomed, so did plastic manufacture and use. The plastic industry, estimated to be Rs 3.5 lakh crore in FY23, is projected to grow to Rs 10 lakh crore in FY28. It is home to 30,000 processing units, a majority of them micro, small and medium enterprises, employing more than 4 million people and contributing 1.4 per cent to the GDP. In FY25, India exported plastics worth $12.5 billion (approx. Rs 1.07 lakh crore), according to the Plastics Export Promotion Council.advertisementToday, India is among the top three consumers of plastics globally, after China and the US, though its per capita plastic consumption of 13 kg is less than half the global average of 30 kg. But while China generates 0.08 kg per person per day of plastic waste, one and a half times more than the 0.054 kg generated in India, our inability to manage the waste makes us the largest plastic emitters in the world, more than three times China's emissions of 2.8 Mt, according to the calculations in the Nature study.PLASTIC AS HAZARDIts very ubiquity has made plastic a global menace, in which India is said to play a major part. Plastic's non-biodegradable nature means it stays around forever, and everywhere. Over time, it fragments into micro and nano-sized particles, which infiltrate the soil, air, water and vegetables, causing health issues in humans and animals (see Growing Sea of Plastic). The presence of plastic in complex body parts such as heart and brain suggests it is not only being ingested (reflected by its presence in urine and faeces) but entering the bloodstream in the form of microplastics and accumulating in various organs.advertisementAnimals often mistake plastic for food and end up eating it. Dr P.V. Parikh, professor and head of veterinary surgery and radiology at the College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Kamdhenu University in Anand, Gujarat, recalls operating on a cow that had 65 kg of plastic bags, cups and disposable spoons entangled in its stomach. The owner had bought the cow believing she was pregnant, but when she did not deliver in nine months, he brought her to Parikh. Garima Poonia, whose solid waste management initiative Kachrewala Foundation has removed over four tonnes of plastic waste from the beaches of the Andaman Islands since 2018, says plastic fishing nets get entangled in corals, eventually suffocating, starving and poisoning them. 'Last year alone, we recovered more than a kilometre of fishing line and ropes,' she says.
ON SORTING DUTY: The plastic bazaar at Tikri Kalan in northwest Delhi. (Photo: Chandradeep Kumar)
WHAT HAS BEEN DONEadvertisementTo reduce plastic use, the government in 2022 banned 19 single-use plastic (SUP) items with 'low utility and high littering potential', including plastic cutlery, straws, trays, decorative thermocol. Additionally, a thickness criterion was imposed on SUP items like carry-bags and banners—plastic carry bags less than 120 microns and PVC banners less than 100 microns were banned as it is difficult to collect and recycle thin plastics.Meanwhile, in an effort to check the amount of plastic ending up in landfills, the government notified the Guidelines on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for Plastic Packaging in 2022, wherein producers, importers and brand owners (PIBOs) were obligated for 100 per cent of life disposal of the plastic generated from the packaging of their products. This included targets for collection, recycling, end-of-life management, recycled content usage and selective reuse in plastic packaging. 'As on date, it is among the world's biggest frameworks for EPR implementation on plastic packaging,' says a senior official of the environment ministry. Beginning this April, beverage companies, including Coke and PepsiCo, are required to use 30 per cent recycled plastic in their bottles. A Hindustan Unilever spokesperson welcomed the mandated use of recycled plastic in packaging material. 'From 58,000 TPA in 2020, HUL increased its EPR quantity to over 100,000 TPA in 2021 and has been sustaining at 100 per cent of our plastic footprint since then,' he says. Likewise, Tejashree Joshi, head of environmental sustainability, Godrej Enterprises Group, says they have been offsetting 10-15 per cent more than the volume of plastic used for packaging their products through their recycling partners. 'Over the past five years, we have recycled more than 15,000 tonnes of plastic from various regions.'
A few exceptions apart, good intentions, as with everything else in India, falter at the doorstep of implementation. According to a report by Australian philanthropy Minderoo Foundation, India's SUP ban addressed hardly 11 per cent of the products in the category, and its implementation has been ineffective on many fronts. A survey conducted by Delhi-based non-profit Toxics Link in October 2023 at 700 survey points—including street food vendors, restaurants, railway stations and malls—across five Indian cities, found Delhi and Gwalior the least compliant, with 88 and 84 per cent points, respectively, still using banned SUPs, followed by Guwahati (77 per cent), Mumbai (71 per cent) and Bengaluru (55 per cent). Depressingly, carry bags less than 120 microns were commonly available, and other banned products, including thermocol decorations (74 per cent), balloons and plastic stick earbuds (60 per cent each), continued to be sold in all cities.One of the top reasons for the lack of enforcement, says Swati Singh Sambyal, senior circular economy expert at Norwegian non-profit GRID-Arendal, is the lack of rigour in state pollution control boards and local governments, including municipalities. This, she explains, is compounded by insufficient capacities of the enforcers and manpower. 'Additionally, the industry for plastic alternatives remains relatively small and less specialised.' SUP alternatives include bamboo cutlery, areca palm leaf tableware or paper plates, paper cups with plant-based lining, beeswax food wraps instead of cling films etc. But these remain expensive and inaccessible across income groups, which is why mainstream adoption of SUP alternatives stays low.Siddharth Ghanshyam Singh, programme manager, municipal solid waste, CSE, sees the problem of plastic pollution as more than waste management. Waste management principles adhere to an order of priority: reduce, reuse, recycle, recover. We seem to falter at the very first step—globally, the production of plastic is only increasing. As a result, a 2023 report by Swiss research consultancy Earth Action reveals that, even with improvement in waste management capacity, global plastic pollution will triple by 2040. Wilma Rodrigues, founder and chief transformation officer of Bengaluru-based social enterprise Saahas Zero Waste, says, 'We can't continue producing plastic without the proper means to manage the waste.' Singh has an issue with the material itself. 'It poses a challenge at every stage of its life cycle, from production to disposal,' he says. To prevent plastic pollution, each stakeholder must play a part. From the big petrochemical companies like Indian Oil Corporation, GAIL, BPCL and Reliance that supply the polymers, to the manufacturers—mostly MSMEs—that fashion the polymers into products catering to their vendors, to the brands, retailers and consumers who ultimately distribute and use these products.According to a government report titled 'Chemical and Petrochemical Statistics at a Glance, 2024', of the 19 Mt of petrochemicals produced annually, 12.5 Mt, or 65.8 per cent, is used for polymer production. While plastic is widely seen as a 'wonder material', Singh thinks it's time to shift focus—plastic should be reserved for essential use in healthcare, defence and aerospace rather than for short-term, convenience-driven and single-use purposes.Meanwhile, brand owners remain the biggest culprits in plastic pollution in the country, with packaging waste a significant contributor to the menace. According to a 2021 report titled 'Unwrapped: Exposing India's Top Plastic Polluters', by the global Movement #BreakFreeFromPlastic, multi-layered plastics—which are non-recyclable—made up 35 per cent of all plastic waste and 40 per cent of all branded plastic waste. Of the 149,985 pieces of plastic the researchers audited, Unilever, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Reckitt Benckiser, Nestl, Amazon, Colgate-Palmolive, P&G, Kraft Heinz and Mondelez International emerged as the top global companies polluting India with plastic, while Parle, ITC, Britannia, Haldiram, United Spirits, Tata Consumer Products, Marico, Hector Beverages, Milky Mist and Balaji were among the Indian brands.Even when it comes to EPR, as Rodrigues of Saahas says, 'Very few take up this responsibility at scale; even fewer do it in the right spirit.' Cost is a constraint in formalising reverse logistics. 'Brands don't want to pay appropriately for collection and recycling, and often opt for the informal sector,' she says. The lack of standard guidelines on recycling complicates the situation further. Some 30-40 per cent of the waste leaks out solely because of informality in the collection and disposal system. 'Almost 30 per cent of the plastic waste is incinerated, which is included in plastic recycling figures. This should not be the case,' says Satish Sinha, associate director, Toxics Link. Experts also lament the lack of authentic data in the country.
RECYCLING RIGMAROLENot all plastics are the same, and each kind has to be recycled separately. India's problem is that segregation at the source or household level remains poor. So, plastic becomes part of mixed solid waste—dumped with wet waste like vegetable and fruit peels, and dry waste like paper, plastic bags and e-waste. Also, even though thermoplastics such as polypropylene, polystyrene and low-density polyethylene are recyclable, they are often treated similarly to the non-recyclable thermoset plastics, and sent to waste-to-energy plants.Most waste collection in India also happens via informal channels such as kabadiwalas, who pick up only the waste that is lucrative. So, while 'easy' plastic waste like PET bottles, shampoo and bodywash containers fetch up to Rs 40-50 for a kg, other types of plastic—such as multilayer and disposable boxes—fetch only Rs 5-10 per kg, and are often left uncollected, according to Sinha of Toxics Link.Plastic products have also become very complex, says Vinod Kumar, programme officer, waste & sustainability, Toxics Link. 'Different polymers are being compressed or mixed together to make products, making their recycling extremely difficult and expensive.' Unrecycled items often get dumped in landfills or purchased by brick kiln owners, albeit illegally, to generate heat for firing the bricks. 'In rural areas, households often resort to burning garbage for disposal or generating heat during winters due to weak waste collection systems, releasing toxic fumes in the environment,' he says.
In the absence of high-grade recycling and contamination of plastic waste, most plastics are downcycled—essentially used to make low-quality household items like buckets, jugs and synthetic clothes. Because of this, they can only be recycled 3-4 times in their lifetime, says Abhishek Deshpande, co-founder & COO of Recykal, a tech solution provider that helps manage the plastic waste of 12,000-plus businesses.Until the collection and recovery of plastics in a closed-loop manner becomes a reality, the narrative must shift towards reduction, says Rodrigues. Change, Sambyal suggests, must begin at an individual level. Like always carrying a cloth bag and saying no to shopping bags. Also, developing a habit of keeping three items in one's bag: basic steel cutlery, including a steel or coconut straw, a water bottle, and a bag for eating out at roadside kiosks. 'This way, you'll end up avoiding a lot of single-use items. Once you're able to practise it daily, try to influence at least five people around you to do the same to create a chain of multipliers,' she says.Given the colossal scale of the crisis, global action is imperative. In 2022, 175 UN member-countries agreed to create a first-of-its-kind legally binding treaty to curb plastic pollution. However, its release was postponed during the negotiations last year in Busan, Korea, due to differences over a variety of issues, among them capping plastic production, which saw strong opposition from oil and petrochemical-producing countries. The next negotiations are scheduled to take place from August 5-14 in Geneva. The needle has to move fast, as plastic will outweigh fish by 2050 and may even exceed the biomass of all humans on the planet.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- EndTune InMust Watch
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