MUMBAI: India generates 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, of which 40% remains uncollected and 4% is used for packaging, most of which is single-use, a new study has revealed. The study has been conducted by Un-Plastic Collective (UPC), a voluntary multi-stakeholder initiative to eliminate plastic pollution in nature and move towards a circular economy.

“Globally, over 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic has been produced since 1950, and about 60% of that has ended up in landfills or in the natural environment. India generates 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, of which 40%, remains uncollected; 43% is used for packaging, most of which is single-use,” it said.

The UPC was launched on Thursday by the UN-Environment Program-India, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and WWF-India at CII’s Sustainability Summit in New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, Jamshyed Godrej, former president of CII and chairman, Godrej & Boyce and president, WWF-India highlighted the externalities of plastic and the challenges it poses to the ecological balance. “UPC will bring together businesses, government, NGOs and civil society to focus efforts on collaborative approaches and maximise synergies to un-plastic in a time-bound manner,” Godrej said.

The event was also attended by Amitabh Kant, CEO Niti Aayog, who stressed on the government’s massive push to remove single-use plastic.

India has also announced its commitment to eliminate single-use plastic by 2022- one of the most ambitious targets in the world -- across 60 countries that have made commitments to address this issue. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his speech on the Independence Day, reiterated his call for a “new mass movement” against single-use plastic in the country.-PTI