Dr. N. Munal Meitei
Environmentalist, presently working as DFO/Chandel
Email: nmunall@yahoo.in
International Plastic Bag Free Day is celebrated on July 3. The country is celebrating the 76th Vana Mahotsav, the great festival of forests, from 1-7 July, with our cultural ethos to save the environment and the Mother Earth. In the meantime, the state is facing a massive flash flood and landslides in many parts, which is a vivid warning to us from Mother Nature.
This global day is aimed at reducing the use of single-use plastic bags and promoting sustainable alternatives. It also highlights the environmental impact of plastic bags, which contribute to pollution, harm wildlife and take hundreds of years to decompose. This gives us an opportunity to remind ourselves that every action we take and every bag we dispose of affects the environment, including future generations. Used plastic bottles, which clogged the drainage, also took a sizable role in the recent flash flood in Manipur.
Plastic bags may seem like a grocery shopping convenience, but they are also a huge strain on the environment. Most of us use them every day, whether we’re shopping for groceries or the latest fashion trends. But then, when we arrive home, we often toss aside the wrapping without giving much thought to it.
Plastic bags also affect the growth of crops by hindering the process of photosynthesis in agricultural fields. Thus, it is all about environmental conservation and promoting the use of more biodegradable and eco-friendly alternatives.
Plastics invented during 1907 take 250-2,000 years to disintegrate. Thus, every plastic piece that has been manufactured so far will exist on the earth in one form or another. India has banned on use, manufacture, import, stocking, distribution and sale of identified single-use plastic items, which have low utility and high littering potential, having less than 100 microns in thickness from July 1, 2022. Any contravention is punishable with imprisonment for a term of five years or with a fine which may extend to Rs 1 lakh or with both. But we are yet to implement it in full swing.
India’s plastics consumption of 21 million tons per year, i.e., 15 kg per person, is one of the highest in the world. About 60% of plastic waste in India is collected – that means the remaining 40% or 10,376 tons remain uncollected. India ranked 3rd on mismanaged plastic waste and during 2024, it will reach 7.4 million tons.
Single-use plastic bags can contaminate soil and water, endangering humans and wildlife alike. Now plastic is omnipresent, from food packaging to our super computers, from educational equipment to life-saving medical equipment, from housing to clothing, etc. Thus, we use the plastic products for 24X7.
The impact of plastic bags is not only their long decomposition time, but also the addition of toxic substances and microplastics into the environment. When plastic bags are burnt, they release dioxins, furans, mercury and BPAs into the air, causing ambient air pollution. The other detrimental environmental effect includes littering, pollution of soil, air, water, blockage of channels, rivers, streams and landscape disfigurement, which we have seen today in most of the hill states like Manipur.
Globally, 500 billion plastic bags are used per annum, which is 1,60,000 plastic bags used every second. Unluckily, less than 1% of them are recycled, but one ton of recycled plastic bags saves the energy equivalent of 1,750 litres of oil. 75% of beach litter worldwide is plastic. If these plastics are put one after another, they would go around the Earth 7 times for every hour and can occupy half of India.
90% of plastic polluting our oceans is carried by the rivers and plastic is killing more than 1.1 million seabirds and animals every year. Surprisingly, the total debris of plastic litter in the ocean today is more than the total number of visible creatures in the ocean water.
Humans are also not left out. At present, humans ingest 5 g of microplastics every week, which is 2.5 kg in a decade, leading to various health problems.
Productions of plastic consume 4,500 million tons of oil, which is 8% of the earth’s petroleum products. To produce a single 1-litre water bottle, 162 g of oil and 7 litres of water are required. Thus, only for plastic bottles, 2,703 million litres of petroleum are required annually.
Plastic is plaguing our planet. A plastic-free planet should not be only for the privileged, but should provide solutions and alternatives for many who depend upon this cheap, light and accessible material. The real campaign for plastic bag free state should start from the smallest units, from myself, my family and then to neighbors and then to our locality and ultimately the whole state and country.
Awareness is another critical tool for behavioral improvement in the use of plastic bags. Other actions include taking part in neighborhood clean-up efforts, voluntarily recycling household waste, avoiding littering and illegal dumping of plastic bags. Our easiest activity to take part in is the collection and proper dumping of all plastic garbage from markets, roadways, beaches and rivers wherever we find there. The best solution to address plastic bag pollution is to change our mindsets to stop the throwaway culture with habits of reduce, reuse, recycle and educate.
Finding ways such as to reuse the plastic for road black topping and making of useful home designs and other domestic products and using plastic bottles in roadside plantation fencing, etc., are other encouraging options. Though reduction is the best option, another good hope is the identification of B. subtilis and wax moth caterpillars that could manage the global plastic problem in landfills and oceans to some extent.
Therefore, on coming of the International Plastic Bag Free Day-2025, let’s make Manipur a plastic-free state with a healthy environment.
