Sustainable Substitutes for Single Use Plastic Packaging

The Ministry Of Environment Forest And Climate Change has enforced a blanket ban on certain single use plastic articles that have "low utility and high littering potential" from July 1st, 2022; as notified in the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021 Rules.. Under this new mandate: manufacturing, importing, stocking, distributing, selling, and using certain single-use plastic products will be prohibited with immediate effect from the 1st July, 2022.(Best Flexible Packaging Products in India)[https://www.globalparachem.com]

Plastic straws, sticks for candy, ice-cream and balloons, cutlery, cigarette packets, earbuds, among others: all are banned with immediate effect. This ban on a handful of everyday items is but the beginning of an ambitious and long-drawn out plan for phasing out plastic entirely. Plastic manufacturers are only permitted to produce plastic bags with a minimum thickness of 120 microns from the 31st December, 2022; plastic bags with higher thickness are more recyclable and easier to handle vis a vis waste management. This in itself is a significant legislative step our government has taken for phasing out harmful single use plastic. While many scoff at these seemingly inadequate bans and legislations with regard to certain single use plastic products, we had to begin somewhere, somehow: even if we have to begin again, and again. The goal is to never stop till a plastic free future becomes present

Where’s the plastic in your life?

Your life is plastic, and you should know it. Now don’t take it personally, it’s just simple facts. Plastic products bleach out micro- plastics over time, even when they’re being recycled, and these imperceptible plastic particles have found their way into every living being in this Anthropocene age we live in. Everything made of plastic- our appliances, phones, computers, wires, cutlery, clothes, vehicles, wrappers, and so on: all bleach plastic. Look further and all our food packaging has some plastic in it- chocolates, biscuits, candy, teas, coffees, cheese, meat, yogurt, milk, cardboard- all have some plastic packaging, even if the rest is wrapped in paper to greenwash consumers. Even soft drink cans are lined with plastic to keep the contents fresh. Personal care products like shampoos, creams and make up contain synthetic polymers and micro-beads made of plastic. Your favourite dental floss is often made from plastic based materials.

Fabrics like nylon, rayon, polyester, acrylic yarns and fabrics are all plastic. When you wash them, they each shed many millions of microscopic plastic fibres that eventually wind up in waterways and back into you. Your kids aren’t safe either because a lot of baby wipes and disposable diapers contain plastic- the absorbents are made from polymer and petroleum-based plastic or plastic-treated fabrics- yikes! Even your average disposable sanitary napkin has about two grams of plastic in it. Most coffee and tea cups that seem to be paper-based are made in fact made of plastic in some measure. It’s everywhere, all at once; and phasing out plastic in one go will quite literally lead to the collapse of civilisation as we know it: and a gradual phasing out is the only way forward.

Globalparachem is a best flexible packaging company based outside New Delhi, India.