In news–The Union Environment Minister has launched Awareness Mascot ‘Prakriti’ & Green Initiatives for Effective Plastic Waste Management recently.
About Awareness Mascot & Green initiatives-
The mascot aims to spread greater awareness among masses about small changes that can be sustainably adopted in our lifestyle for a better environment. During the event, following green initiatives for plastic waste management were launched:
- National Dashboard on Elimination of Single Use Plastic and Plastic Waste Management (MoEFCC) to bring all stakeholders including Central Ministries/ Departments, State/UT Governments at one place and track the progress made for elimination of single use plastic (SUP) and effective management of plastic waste.
- Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Portal for Plastic Packaging (CPCB) for improving accountability, traceability, transparency and facilitating ease of reporting compliance to EPR Obligations by Producers, Importers and Brand-owners.
- Mobile App for Single Use Plastics Grievance Redressal (CPCB) to empower citizens to check sale/usage/manufacturing of SUP in their area and tackle the plastic menace.
- Monitoring module for SUP (CPCB), for local bodies, SPCBs/PCCs and CPCB, to inventorize details of SUP production/ sale & usage in commercial establishments at district level, and on-ground enforcement of ban on SUP.
- Industrial production of Graphene from Waste Plastic (G B Pant NIHE & NRDC) to promote more industries to come forward to upcycle plastic waste.
- The event also saw felicitation of the winners of the India Plastic Challenge–Hackathon 2021.
- Three Start-ups/entrepreneurs category and four teams of students from Higher Education Institutions were awarded cash prizes of Rs. 5 Lakhs and Rs. 1 Lakh respectively for their innovative ideas and digital solutions for plastic waste mitigation and elimination of Single-Use Plastics.
Plastics can be divided into two major categories:
Thermoset or thermosetting plastics-
- Once cooled and hardened, these plastics retain their shapes and cannot return to their original form. They are hard and durable.
- Thermosets can be used for auto parts, aircraft parts and tyres. Examples include polyurethanes, polyesters, epoxy resins and phenolic resins.
Thermoplastics-
- Less rigid than thermosets, thermoplastics can soften upon heating and return to their original form.
- They are easily moulded and extruded into films, fibres and packaging.
- Examples include polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
Plastic pollution-
- Plastic has become one of the most pressing environmental issues that we are facing today.
- India is generating about 3.5 million tonnes of plastic waste annually and the per capita plastic waste generation has almost doubled over the last five years.
- Plastic pollution adversely affects our ecosystems and is also linked to air pollution.
- Lead and Cadmium pigments, commonly used in most of the plastics as additives are hazardous in nature and are known to leach out.
- To tackle the challenge of plastic pollution, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India’s pledge to phase out single-use plastics by 2022.
Further reading: https://journalsofindia.com/plastic-pollution/
Source: PIB
