India to ban single-use plastics

Abstract

India is set to impose a nationwide ban on some single-use plastic items on Oct. 2, with the goal of eliminating all such items by 2022. India generates about 26,000 metric tons of plastic waste daily, much of which ends up as litter. As part of implementing the ban, the national railway system and Air India plan to move away from single-use plastic items, with the airline switching to birchwood cutlery, paper cups, and paper packaging for chips. The government is also asking private industry to slash its use of single-use plastics, and some companies are already falling in line: Amazon India says it will replace bubble wrap and plastic air pillows with paper padding by June 2020, and Bangalore-based Flipkart, which is owned by Walmart, plans to eliminate single-use plastic in packaging by March 2021. Not everyone is pleased by the efforts to reduce single-use plastics, however. The ban