Plastic Waste Management Campaign: Objectives, Guidelines, Importance

Plastic Waste Management Campaign under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

What is the Plastic Waste Management Campaign?

Like popular Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the Plastic Waste Management Campaign is launched with a view to eliminating a single use of plastic from regular activities. The Plastic Waste Management Campaign was launched under the action ‘Swachhta hi Sewa 2019’ of Prime Minister of India on 11^th September 2019 to spread awareness among people and is launched by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

The Plastic Waste Management Campaign, launched on 11^th September, is set to be carried through 2^nd October 2014 but a part of the campaign will still remain continued and will end in the last of October of the same year. The campaign will be run through various activities during the period and the objective will be set to completely eliminate the use of plastic by 2^nd October 2019.

Objective of Plastic Waste Management Campaign

Launched under the action “Swachhta hi Sewa” in 2019, the campaign is named as “Massive Community Mobilization for Plastic Waste Shramdaan and Banning of Single-Use Plastics (SUPs)” and is identified as “Plastic Waste Management Campaign”.

The provided campaign is mainly aimed at reducing the single-use of plastic to an almost zero level so that they should not be dumped under the ground with wastes. It is being done to reduce the risk for human beings and other creatures to survive on earth. We can further describe in detail the actual purpose behind launching the Plastic Waste Management Campaign in four parts as:

1. The primary goal of the Campaign is to identify the main barriers or difficulty in reducing plastic from the household’s garbage or garbage by any factory. The difficulty is also faced in separating the plastic waste from mixed wastes and residual waste streams.
2. The Campaign works on inspiring the students from Higher Education Institutions for providing “Shramdaan” which refers to being physically active and providing the participation of the students and people in various cleanliness activities.
3. As the secondary objective, the campaign works on promoting the recycling of plastic waste into a new plastic product to decrease the production of plastic. Earth is already suffering from the problem of excessive use of plastic by a human. In this situation, recycling is the best option to release some burden of plastic from the earth.
4. The third and the equally important aim of launching this campaign is to stop the plastic waste from being land-filled and also to stop the incineration of plastic waste as the incineration and landfill of plastic is the main reason behind the land of being infertile and inappropriate to use.

These are the three main objectives behind launching the Plastic Waste Management Campaign which collectively work to remove the use of plastic for the improvement of the condition of the earth.

Guidelines for Plastic Waste Management Campaign

Under the Plastic Waste Management Campaign, the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has issued several guidelines to be followed by the personals from the higher educational institutions. These mandatory guidelines are as follows:

1. The higher educational institutions should stop the single-use of plastic and also should prevent others from doing so in their School Canteen, Play-grounds, Class, Hostel, School premises, shopping complexes, and other public places.
2. The students should spread awareness among others for the negative impact of the use of plastic and request them to promote a safe future by not taking the help of any plastic made product.
3. The awareness among the people can be made by the various awareness drives or sensitization workshops.
4. The student should also avoid the use of plastic for themselves as they know that the plastic is non-biodegradable.
5. The students should also work on first making their house plastic-free and then their society by telling the people the harmful impact of the use of plastic.
6. The student should avoid using plastic made water bottles and carry bags instead they should prefer alternatives like, they should install a proper water source for their need and carry a paper bag instead of a plastic bag.
7. The students should provide ‘Shramdaan’ to collect all the plastic wastes in one place from where it can be easily sent to be recycled.
8. It is also to be ensured that the collected plastic waste must be recycled.

These are several guidelines must be followed by the personals in higher educational institutions to make the campaign worthwhile.

Key Features of Plastic Waste Management Campaign

A very needful Plastic Waste Management Campaign operated from 11^th September to the 27^th of October will be carried out in mainly two stages with one other additional stage. They are:

1. Public awareness, Preparedness, and Swachhta Shramdaan

Public awareness, preparedness, and Swachhta Shramdaan will be carried out from 11^th September to 1^st October in the various parts of India. In this step, the students will be motivated so that they can encourage the people from different villages and towns for Shramdaan and by doing this they will help to generate a mass co-operation. By saying to provide Shramdaan, we mean to say that the students will work on collecting the plastic waste from all the campus and will bring them in the central location of the institution.

2. Comprehensive Plastic Waste Shramdaan

The comprehensive Plastic waste Shramdaan is a one-day targeted activity carried on only 2^nd October, on the day of Gandhi Jayanti. It is based on the collection of plastic-based wastes and the separation of plastic waste from the collected garbage. The separation is done to make plastic to be recycled for which the related ministry is contacted later.

3. Proper Disposal

The proper disposal is the one additional and the last stage of Plastic Waste Management Campaign being carried out from 3^rd October to 27^th October, which is falling on Diwali. Under this final stage, the collected plastic waste is further recycled and effectively disposed of. The third and longest termed stage has three sub-stages provided as follows:

• The duration of 3^rd to 7^th October will be observed in the transportation of the plastic waste to the appropriate place collected from 6 lakh districts and villages.
• From 8^th to 10^th October, the plastic waste will be used in segregating into recyclable and non-recyclable wastes.
• Further, the recyclable waste would be delivered to their destinations from 11^th October to 27^th

All the State Governments, as well as Union Territory Governments, are requested by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade to prepare the list of all the Industrial Parks from where the plastic waste is to be collected. Also, it has become mandatory for the Cement Kilns to take these collected plastic wastes for recycling.

Importance of Plastic Waste Management Campaign

The use of Plastic has become a global problem now a day. Almost all the countries are suffering from this indisposed problem. This is such a major problem that needs some strict decisions for its removal.

It will not be wrong to say that the Plastic Waste Management Campaign is a commendable step towards improving the health of the earth by removing the adverse effects of plastic. The first importance of this campaign is that it will help in spreading awareness about cleanliness among the younger generation of today. They will understand the value of cleanliness and also will promote it to their society.

The Campaign is completely focused on eliminating the single-use of plastic from society so the removal of plastic will remove the problem of cancer by the consumption of goods packed in plastic. The lead, cadmium, and mercury present in plastic are quite toxic for health. Plastic is non-biodegradable and remains under land for many years without being degraded. The submerged plastic inland makes it infertile and useless.

There are many other side effects of the use of plastic to save from which the Plastic Waste Management Campaign will prove to be helpful.