New Delhi: Gujarat is India’s biggest plastic polluter with over 1.64 million tonnes of plastic waste generated between 2016 and 2021, according to data submitted by the environment ministry in response to a question in Parliament Monday.
Minister of State (MoS) Kirti Vardhan Singh shared annual reports of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to provide data on the generation of plastic waste in the country.
While BJP MP Pradeep Purohit had sought data for the last five years, MoS Singh provided data for 2016 to 2021. The latest plastic waste management data available on the CPCB website is of 2020-21. According to this data, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal collectively contributed nearly 37.64 percent of the total plastic waste reported in the most recent year.
The data showed that Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal most frequently appeared in the list of five biggest plastic polluters, generating 1.64, 1.35, 1.34 and 1.02 million tonnes of plastic waste respectively between 2016 and 2021.
The year-wise trends for these states showed a steep increase of approximately 40 percent in the amount of plastic waste produced in West Bengal between 2018 and 2021. Likewise, Tamil Nadu, with 0.43 million tonnes of plastic litter generated between 2020 and 2021, showed a 7.2 percent increase between 2018 and 2019.
In 2016, Karnataka and Gujarat topped the list of the country’s biggest plastic polluters. They dropped to fifth and sixth positions between 2020 and 2021 despite an annual increase in the total amount of plastic waste generated in the time period.
According to the CPCB data shared by MoS Singh, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Tripura contributed least to plastic pollution.
Among Union territories, the Delhi-National Capital Region, with 1.03 million tonnes, had the highest levels of plastic waste in the five years between 2016 and 2021.
Between 2017 and 2018, many states as well as Union territories did not provide the estimates of plastic waste generated.
Purohit also questioned the government about the percentage of plastic waste that gets recycled.
To this, the minister responded that to date, registered plastic waste processors have reported the recycling of 6.8 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste.
“The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has also notified the Guidelines on the Extended Producer Responsibility for plastic packaging vide Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2022, on 16th February, 2022,” the minister added in his response.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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