New Delhi, India needs to increase its waste management capacity and ensure that everyone has access to waste disposal to tackle the increasing plastic pollution in the country, said Boyan Slat, founder of The Ocean Cleanup.
The Netherlands-based non-profit organisation that develops technologies to remove plastic waste from the oceans, last week announced a new initiative to deploy barriers on the Trombay and Malad waterways in Mumbai to stop the flow of plastic waste into the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
The barriers, which will be placed before the arrival of the monsoon season, are expected to collect at least 62 tonnes of plastic waste per year once fully operational.
“While in the long run, expanding waste management capacity will limit plastic pollution, in the short term, placing barriers will help clean the oceans and coasts. These interceptors will essentially buy cities the time till they fix the disposal problem,” Slat told PTI.
According to a 2024 study published in the journal Nature, India is the world’s biggest contributor to plastic pollution, accounting for nearly 20 pc of the total global plastic waste.
The country generates 9.3 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, of which 3.5 million tonnes are mismanaged and leak into the environment each year, the research has found, the study said.
“Much like other rising economies around the world, India also faces a plastic pollution problem, as people do not have adequate access to plastic collection systems and end up using rivers to get rid of waste.
“Also, with the rising population, there is a rapid increase in plastic consumption, due to which systems are not able to keep up with waste management,” Slat said.
Marine plastic pollution can have several types of impacts. It can threaten food safety and quality, human health, and economic activities such as coastal tourism. The pollution can also severely affect marine ecosystems, damaging, for example, the health of mangroves and coral reefs.
Slat, however, is optimistic about the fact that India will be able to tackle the issue in the following decades.
He said, “There are several cities around the world which have successfully dealt with plastic waste. For instance, just a few decades ago, Amsterdam’s canals were very polluted, and not quite different from what you see in Mumbai currently. However, as the country prospered, the waste collection improved, and now, all plastic is collected properly.”
“The same will happen in India. It is just a matter of time,” Slat added.
Among the numerous initiatives that Amsterdam implemented to curb plastic pollution in its canals was deploying bubble barriers in 2019, which created an upward current, directing plastic waste to the surface and ultimately into a catchment area.
The Ocean Cleanup’s initiative – in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board – will work on similar lines.
“There will be several barriers of varying sizes, placed like LEGO pieces, to most effectively stop plastic waste from going into the ocean. While in some areas, excavators will be used to take out trash, in others, conveyor belts will be deployed. The barriers have also been designed to withstand the heaviest monsoon rains,” he said.
Once plastic waste has been collected, it will be sorted according to material, recyclability, and any particular process required, to minimise the trash which does not get repurposed.
Although the initiative is currently being launched in Mumbai only, Slate hopes to expand it to other Indian cities as well in the future.
“We chose Mumbai to start our initiative in India, as it is the top contributor to plastic waste in the country,” Slat said.
“Our survey found that it releases about 5 million kilograms of plastic waste into the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean annually, impacting 220 km of coastline, 152 sq km of mangroves, 107 protected species, and nearly 1.9 million livelihoods dependent on coastal and marine ecosystems,” he said.
So, we want to first create success here, and then we will expand to Kolkata, Chennai, Kochi, and all the other big coastal cities, Slate added.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.