PLASTIC
POLITICS |
The plastic people
Who is producing all this plastic? |
 The annual plastic
production of India is one of the lowest in the world, being 2.1 kg per capita per year as
opposed to as much as 40-60 kg in rich, developed countries in the West. So industries see
big market and big money. They want to ensure that we use as much plastic as developed
countries and they earn fat profits out of it.
Who is producing all this plastic in India? Of all the plastic makers, Reliance Industries
is the biggest giant. It has a 56 percent share of the plastic market in India and they
want it to grow. After the liberalisation of 1991 customs duties on petrochemical products
were lowered sharply from 130 percent to 30 percent. So Reliance have installed huge
capacity petrochemical plants. This helps them to reduce the cost of production and sell
plastic cheap and still earn huge profits. It acts like a double-edged sword. One, other
plastic industries cannot compete with Reliance. And two, other materials like jute,
bamboo, cement etc, which plastic substitutes also cannot compete (see below). Plastic
slowly replaces other traditional materials and engulfs us all in the web of plastic,
plastic and more plastic.
Of all the plastic
makers, Reliance Industries is the biggest giant having a 56% share of the plastic market
in India
So what should we do? We need a sustainable use of plastic. For this,
the government will have to ensure that petrochemical industries restrict the types of
plastic produced and reduce the quantity. Only specialised, essential plastics that cannot
be matched by renewable material or bio-plastics should be produced. And the industry
would have to take full responsibility for the complete life cycle of plastic products.
Once used, the industry would have to take it back and do safe disposal. Automatically,
there would be less plastic produced and therefore less plastic used, less waste and less
use of virgin resources for manufacture.
Plastic is glamourous. Plastic is synonymous with development. We all have a craving
for zip cars, high-tech computers, and luxurious lifestyles: the good life. But such a
lifestyle is not sustainable in the long run. It can only be achieved by exploiting
nature. Maybe, in our day to day lives we need to ask ourselves, what do I need? How can I
satisfy this need? Is my need fulfiled at the cost of looting and plundering of the earth.
By choosing a plastic material over a renewable material, what are the implications for
the earth and the people around me?
PLASTIC
ECONOMICS |
Dear Reliance
This cheap material is expensive. |
 You
would rather entertain yourself at a virtual reality park, than see a puppet show. Prefer
a bottle of coke or pepsi to lassi served in a kulhad. Here start all the
problems of plastic threatening traditional materials and crafts. Let us browse through
the status of some of the industries:
Jute Industry: In 1970, it contributed to 30 percent of the country’s foreign
exchange. This has come down to only 1%. The industry has practically died. Mostly because
jute is being replaced by polypropylene to make sacks.
The Leather Industry: In the past footwear was made from leather. Now PVC slippers and
chappals are replacing the juties and leather slippers. Styrofoam cups have
replaced the kulhads. Plastic furniture has replaced wooden furniture.
Prices of
plastic don’t take ecological cost into account. That is why they are so cheap to
produce and consume – at the cost of traditional materials.
Why is this happening? There are economic reasons. The petrochemical industry is a
large-scale industry where materials are mass-produced, mechanically in factories and
therefore cost effective. The production happens in a jiffy. Against this, products made
from traditional materials suffers as it takes time, human skill and labour to produce
them.
Suppose that prices of all plastic items were to increase hundred times. A polybag
which costs a vendor not more than fifty paisa would suddenly cost fifty rupees! Would it
be used then? Can you actually think how your lifestyle would change? Would you still be
using so much throw away plastic stuff? Which industries would stop using plastic?
Life in Plastic
byRobert Edwards
&
Rachel Kellett
GT would like to acknowledge the extensive use of information in this issue from this
Greenpeace report, on the plastic industry and it’s future in India.
Published by: Other India Press |
At present we only pay for the cost of
production. What about the ecological cost – that of disposal of plastics through
incineration or landfill sites, the hospital bills of sick workers, dead sea turtles and
cows, ruined eco-systems? The price of plastic goods don’t take this fact into
account. That is why they are so cheap – to produce and to consume.
Clever industrialists want to earn money and more
money and the only way to do it is by selling more and more plastic to more and more
people. That is why we find it everywhere till it becomes such a integral part of our life
that we cannot imagine life without it.
|
 The word plastic originates from the greek word ‘plastikos’, which means something capable of being moulded or shaped.
In 1862, Alexander Parkes produced the first plastic, which was called 'parkestine' after his name.
In 1860s, billiards had become a real popular sport.
Hundreds of elephants had to be killed to get ivory which was needed to make billiards
balls. John W. Hyatt, in 1869 produced cellulose as a substitute.
1907, the first thermosetting plastic was produced by Leo Baekland and called bakellite, which is used to make switches.
Du-Pont, a
US company set up the first plastic plant during the First World War (1914-18) and
produced explosives and later diversified and grew.
In 1913,
Brendenberger, a Swiss textile engineer, was sitting in a restaurant sipping wine when he
spilled it on the table cover. It took a lot of time to clean the table and he vowed to
find a material, which would get cleaned very easily, and he finally did it. He produced
the first plastic that came to be used in packaging.
In 1933, E W
Fawcett and R O Gibbron produced polyethylene for the first time. Between 1939 - 1945, the
Second World War took place. Polyethylene revolutionised the war.
By 1950, plastic gained immense popularity
and ever since its use and applications have been on a rise. With increase in use
it’s environmental impact is also being better understood. |
|
A
Down To Earth Supplement
