If one looks around anywhere in the Global South, plastic trash is seen in abundance in public places. “Ending Plastic Pollution” is the theme for this year’s World Environment Day, which falls on June 5, 2025, to address an increasing problem.

 

India, like many nations, has responded to the plastic crisis with bans, recycling targets, and awareness drives. Yet the problem still persists and grows even more complex.

Human beings are not concerned with throwing plastic trash in public places. Every week, we at Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) search for plastic trash in the beautiful Central Park in Jaipur city. We are not the only ones, and many other voluntary groups also do the same. Yet the rule breakers continue to dump plastic trash all over.

This includes useable PET bottles (Polyethylene terephthalate bottles) along with single-use wrappers. Sometimes, the municipal government does enforce laws and fine violators, but yet the impact is not effective.

Why? Because bans and recycling alone are not enough. To truly beat plastic pollution, we need to make a bold shift - from managing waste to eliminating it at the source, from linear use-and-dispose models to circular systems, and from token measures to behavioural change. Recent studies show that India generates nearly 10 million tonnes of plastic waste every year.

This isn’t just about how much we consume, but how much we mismanage. The volume of mismanaged plastic waste and environmental leakage from India now exceeds that of China and the United States.

Barely half of our plastic waste is recycled. The rest clogs landfills, chokes rivers and oceans, and seeps into our food chain as microplastics.

Even when recycled, plastic is often downcycled into lower quality materials that quickly becomes waste again. In the end, recycling is just damage control, not a solution.

Reduce dependence and encourage reuse: The real remedy lies not in managing plastic better, but in using less of it. India’s partial ban on single-use plastics since 2022 was a good step forward, but the enforcement remains uneven, with plastic bags and disposable cutlery still common. What is needed now is a push for product redesign focusing on packaging that is minimal, reusable, or made from alternatives.

While recycling recovers value from waste, reuse avoids waste altogether. India has immense untapped potential here. Imagine shampoo in returnable glass bottles or groceries from refill stations. These models have been piloted in some metro cities and some FMCG giants have tested refill packs or deposit-return systems.

But for reuse models to work at scale, we need infrastructure, incentives, and standardisation. Reusable systems can also create new green jobs in logistics, cleaning, and maintenance, supporting both environmental and employment goals. Are Alternatives Viable? Bioplastics and compostables attract attention, but not all “eco” plastics are effective.

Many biodegradable plastics degrade only under industrial composting, which India lacks at scale. Worse, they may even contaminate recycling streams.

The answer isn’t blind replacements, but investing in truly circular, safe materials suited to local needs. Materials from banana fibre, seaweed or the fibrous sugarcane waste are promising innovations. However, their economic viability and accessibility beyond premium markets remain a challenge.

From bans to systemic change in policy: India’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Policy 2025 requires producers, importers, and brand owners to collect and process their plastic waste and to include a minimum percentage of recycled content in products and packaging.

Yet, implementation remains uncertain as many companies outsource obligations or show low transparency in compliance. We need more than bans.

Financial incentives like lower good and services tax (GST) on sustainable products are essential to encourage better choices. Urban and rural bodies must be empowered to build decentralised waste management systems, ensure source segregation, and engage communities in co-creating solutions.

A mindset shift is essential: Plastic pollution is not just a material problem but a deeply cultural one. The throwaway culture, normalised by modern consumerism, stands in stark contrast to India’s longstanding traditions of frugality and reuse.

To end plastic pollution, we must revive these values. Behavioural change campaigns need to be widespread and nuanced, reaching from religious gatherings to school curriculums, from influencers to street theatre. For example, in Ladakh, monks lead awareness drives against plastic waste at pilgrimage sites. In Kerala, fisherfolk are trained to collect plastic waste from the sea.

A global problem with local solutions: India plays a key role in global efforts to tackle plastic need to respect each country’s unique circumstances and avoid overlaps with existing agreements. Moving forward, India must continue pushing for binding commitments that address the unique challenges and solutions of the Global South. At the local level, our lived experiences, from village sabhas organising plastic-free weeks to urban apartment complexes adopting composting and waste segregation, offer valuable lessons to inform global frameworks.

Likewise, international examples such as Rwanda’s bans, Chile’s reuse laws, and the EU’s circular design initiatives provide useful guidance. To truly end plastic pollution, India must go beyond recycling. It must redesign systems, rebuild habits, and reimagine growth not as material abundance, but as ecological harmony.

This is not merely an environmental imperative, but a chance to lead the world by showing how ancient wisdom, modern innovation, and collective will can unite to achieve this goal.

The writer is the secretary-general of CUTS International, a 40-year-old leading global public policy research and advocacy group.

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