The Importance Of EPR For Plastic Waste Management

Plastic happens to be one of the most widely used materials in the world. Carry bags, toiletries, furniture, food packaging, computer parts, and more; the list is practically endless. In short, plastic is pretty much ubiquitous. Although versatile, the predominant use of plastic also signifies a mounting volume of plastic waste. Do you know how alarming that is? According to statistics, the world generates over 400 million metric tonnes of plastic waste in a year. India alone creates 62 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, bagging a place in the list of the top 10 contributors of plastic waste. Do you know what’s more appalling? Only a scanty portion of the accumulated plastic waste is properly treated. The rest, around 70%, remains plaguing the landfills. Sadly, it brings sustainability and environmental concerns right to the forefront.

Are you wondering if there’s a way to abandon the use of plastic completely? This is a far-fetched thought since plastic is one of the key materials in industries, right from packaging and construction to electronics, machinery, transportation, textiles, and more. Besides, plastic is much preferred, owing to its incredibly lightweight, chemical stability, and flexible texture. The urge to recycle plastic, instead, has been on a roll for years. Are you aware of the benefits of recycling plastic waste? Let’s educate you on a few popular advantages of refurbishing plastic for further use.

Is recycling a promising solution for plastic waste management?

Before explaining why plastic recycling is important in the present times of environmental and climate crises, let’s understand what plastic waste management truly refers to. One of the core principles of plastic waste management is refurbishing the generated waste, treating it, and making it reusable. As easy as it sounds, recycling plastic waste is undoubtedly difficult. The drawbacks include the following:

A lack of a well-equipped plastic collection centre to treat the waste

The high costs of reprocessing plastic waste

A serious lack of technology and industry expertise to manage the waste right

Failure to segregate waste effectively at the source.

Regardless of the challenges, creating awareness around plastic waste management is critical. Here’s how recycling trashed plastic works in favour of the environment, civilisation and sustainability.

1. It keeps the ecosystem less polluted and more flourishing

Do you know how plastic is produced? The material is created from a mix of natural materials and oil like cellulose, coal, salt, natural gas, and crude oil via processes like polycondensation and polymerisation. Simply put, the burning of crude oils aggravates the release of greenhouse gas emissions. It naturally affects the environment and tarnishes the air quality by leaps and bounds. One of the primary benefits of recycling plastic waste is that it lowers the demand for sourcing new plastic and, ultimately, turns down the amount of harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

2. Recycling aims to cut down the pressure on waste management systems

As mentioned above, treating and managing millions of tonnes of plastic is both impractical and unfeasible. Recycling or repurposing the plastic components for further use ensures lesser waste accumulating in landfills.

3. Turning waste into rich and valuable resources

Did you know that upcycling plastic could create valuable chemical products? For example, recycling plastic could aid you in generating alkyl aromatic compounds for detergents. In short, plastic waste is more value-adding than you know. This also highlights the need for sustainable plastic resource management.

4. Recycling of plastics boosts the economy

Are you surprised how recycling plastic could strengthen the economy of the country? Let’s explain. Segregating and recycling plastic is certainly not easy. The work involves setting up a well-equipped plastic collection centre and efficient recyclers with a good understanding of the process. Furthermore, it naturally opens up more indirect employment opportunities, contributing to a robust economy.

Now that you have a good idea about the benefits of recycling plastic waste, do you truly think that recycling is the end solution? Sadly not! Circular economy stands out as a more strategic and result-driven approach to managing and curtailing the growing volumes of plastic waste. From a technical standpoint, circular economy of plastic waste is restorative in design. It clearly focuses on building a closed-loop system wherein the value of plastic in the economy is always on fleek.

The idea behind a strategic and progressive circular economy is to keep the raw materials in the loop and at their highest value. Do you know how it benefits? Unlike recycling, circular economy principles are aimed at cutting down the generation of waste altogether. It gradually decreases the overconsumption of finite and natural resources and motivates manufacturers to design durable products that last longer.

Of course, the challenges of implementing circular economy are no less. The problems include:

1. The availability of an equipped infrastructure to process plastic waste

2. Less awareness about circular economy

3. A not so well framed business model.

However, active environmentalists and PROs like Karo Sambhav leave no stone unturned to make circularity the only way of life. Large-cap entrepreneurs, manufacturers, recyclers, or individuals, the company envisions educating and assisting all in proceeding with guided plastic waste management techniques. Meanwhile, the governments, too, have their skin in the game, implementing EPR for plastic waste.

What is EPR?

To describe, EPR stands for Extended Producer Responsibility, a set of regulations that oblige entrepreneurs, manufacturers, and recyclers to undertake the responsibility for the products from start to finish. Accordingly, businesses and venturers are required to apply for EPR authorisation to continue their operations. The companies are responsible for keeping tabs on ways to manage and oversee the disposal of post-consumer products. Karo Sambhav helps businesses stay EPR compliant.

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