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RR RUEHAST RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHTM
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ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 080216Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI
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RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 NEW DELHI 002402 
 
STATE FOR OES/PCI, OES/STC, OES/SAT, OES/EGC, AND SCA/INS 
STATE FOR STAS 
STATE PASS TO NSF FOR INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS 
HHS PASS TO NIH 
STATE PASS TO USAID 
STATE FOR SCA, OES (STAS FEDOROFF); OES/PDAS/RHARNISH; OES/PCI 
STEWART; OES/IHB MURPHY; OES/GTHOMPSON 
STATE FOR EEB/DAVID HENRY 
PASS TO MAS/DAS/JESTRADA 
PASS TO MAC/DAS/HVINEYARD 
PASS TO NSF/MLUECK 
PASS TO NASA/OER (McIntosh/Williams/Kamm) 
SLUG TO DOE/DAS/JMIZROCH; DOE/MGINZBERG 
SLUG TO DOE/ (TCUTLER/GBISCONTI/CGILLESPIE) 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV KGHG TSPL TNGD EIND ENRG TRGY KSCA ECON ETRD
BEXP, EINV, TBIO, AMED, PGOV, IN 
SUBJECT:  PLASTIC BAGS - A GROWING ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH CONCERN 
IN INDIA 
 
NEW DELHI 00002402  001.2 OF 005 
 
 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary. The ubiquitous plastic bag, the common man's source 
of inexpensive and hygienic storage in India, is increasingly 
becoming a cause of grave concern to the environment and the health 
of both human beings and animals.  The Government of India (GOI) and 
the state governments are realizing the problem and have legislated 
many laws to regulate, curtail or ban their use.  Unfortunately, 
they have been quite lax in implementing them.  International 
experience also shows that ban on plastic bags is not a very 
effective solution.  Indian per capita consumption of flexible 
plastic packaging at 4kgs per year may be low but the country 
generates about 10,000 Metric tons of flexible plastic packaging 
waste per day.  The flexible plastic packaging industry is big 
business in India and is expected to nearly triple in the next 7 
years from its present turnover of USD 2.5 billion.  Looking at the 
type of plastic waste generated in India, 80 percent of it could be 
recycled and 20 percent burnt.  Indian efforts in the mitigation of 
the problem are still in the early stages.  One of the interesting 
solutions being developed is 100 percent conversion of plastic waste 
into fuel of which about 70 percent would be liquid fuel.  With 
India beginning to invest in Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) 
technologies and planning to segregate plastic waste, there are 
opportunities for both US government and the private companies to 
offer existing best practices and technological solutions to address 
this problem.  End Summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
Unforeseen Problems due to Improper Disposal of Plastic Bags 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶2.  (U) The ubiquitous plastic bags and flexible plastic packaging 
material in general, a convenience for the Indian consumer, has now 
become a major cause of concern.  It would be impossible for any one 
to miss the sight of the plastic bags strewn all over in India, a 
visual blight in every city, town and village.  According to the 
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) of India under the Ministry 
of Environment and Forest (MoEF), India generates approximately 
10,000 Metric tons per day of plastics waste which is rapidly 
growing by the day.  The plastics waste constitutes about 9 percent 
of the nearly 120,000 Metric tons of MSW generated per day in India. 
 This is only expected to grow with increasing population, 
developmental activities, changes in life style and socio-economic 
conditions.  The improper disposal of these plastic bags have 
already led to a wide range of problems including chocking drains, 
stagnant water leading to infections, poisoning and killing of cows 
and pets as they consume the plastic bags and the food left in them, 
and pollution of the environment due to burning of plastic waste. 
One example was the 2005 monsoon flooding in the city of Mumbai 
which led to over 1000 people losing their lives.  The city 
government blamed the plastic bags which clogged the drains as one 
of the reasons for the floods.  Another example is the recent 
National Public Radio, US report about the death of between 15,000 
and 20,000 cows each month in India due to the inhibition of normal 
digestion in their stomachs on account of swallowing plastic bags. 
 
 
¶3.  (U) The extent of the problem can be gauged from the fact that 
on August 7, 2008, the Delhi High Court directed the Delhi 
Government to extend the ban on plastics to all markets in the city, 
in addition to the earlier ban in areas like hotels and shopping 
malls.  The high court was ruling on a 4 year old Public Interest 
Litigation (PIL) by a NGO called 'Tapas' based in Delhi on 
"Implementation of Ban of Plastic Bags and Reduction of Garbage". 
During the course of the hearing the court had also constituted a 
 
NEW DELHI 00002402  002.2 OF 005 
 
 
three member committee under the chairmanship of a Justice and 
members from the CPCB and the Delhi Pollution Control Board (DPCB) 
to formulate the guidelines for plastic bag manufacturing and 
disposal.  The report is expected to be available in the public 
domain along with the Court judgment by mid September, 2008. 
However the Court has not imposed any deadline for the 
implementation of the ban.  In response to the court order the Delhi 
government is planning to mandate that plastic bags used should be 
disposable by burning, at least 40 microns thick and 8 x 12 inches 
in size.  As per newspaper reports they also plan to launch a poster 
campaign for reduction in use of plastic bags. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
Legislation to Overcome the Problem not Effective 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
¶4.  (U) The GOI and the various state governments have been trying 
to fight the menace of plastic bags for over a decade.  Himachal 
Pradesh state government was the first to pass a law in July 1996 
'The Non-Biodegradable Waste Act' to address the plastics problem. 
The Act, which banned the "haphazard discarding" or 
non-biodegradable waste, was never properly enforced.  Further 
legislation taxed the local production of plastics, but 
manufacturing simply moved to other States.  The issue gained 
momentum and in 2000 the GOI decreed that all plastic bags in the 
country must be thicker than 20 microns as these bags are more 
likely to be picked by "ragpickers" and avoided by animals.  The GOI 
and most states including Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, 
Kerala, Maharashtra, Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu have 
enacted over 15 legislations and notifications regulating the 
manufacture of plastic bags, the disposal of non-biodegradable 
plastics and the use of biodegradable plastics.  The limit of the 
thickness of the plastic bags varies from 20 micron to 75 micron in 
different states.  However the states and the GOI have not been able 
to implement the rules effectively. 
 
---------------------------------------- 
Factors Hindering Implementation of Regulations 
---------------------------------------- 
¶5.  (U) Plastic bags come in all sizes and shape.  According to the 
Indian Centre for Plastics in the Environment (ICPE), an autonomous 
trade body jointly run by representatives from public and private 
agencies, plastic bags are very convenient to use, easy to store, 
occupy less space, weigh less, consume less material, energy and 
water during manufacture as compared to paper and jute which are 
expensive.  They also save on transportation cost due to low volume 
and weight.  For food items such as milk, edible oil, groceries and 
cosmetics like soap and shampoo, plastic pouches are extremely 
attractive.  They lead to protection from adulteration, pilferage 
and moisture and a longer shelf life for the product.  A whole 
ecosystem of production, storage and transportation industries has 
been developed using plastic bags and pouches and any steps for 
changing the same would be very difficult, expensive and may not 
even be viable in some cases.  The Indian consumer having been used 
to the plastic bags and its associated advantages, has now 
completely forgotten the traditional practice of carrying a cloth or 
a jute bag for shopping.  People demand a plastic carry bag for the 
smallest of items purchased.  Hence, even though there is an 
official ban, many shopkeepers for fear of losing their customers 
continue to keep plastic bags. 
------------------------ 
Plastics is Big Business 
------------------------ 
¶6. (U) Plastics is big business, according to ICPE.  Indian flexible 
packaging industry (of which the plastic bags are a key component) 
 
NEW DELHI 00002402  003.2 OF 005 
 
 
generates about 1,070,000 Metric tons of plastic bag material with a 
revenue of nearly USD 2.5 billion per year.  The volume and the 
revenue are expected to triple to about 3,109,000 Metric tons and 
USD 7.25 billion respectively in the next 7 years, at an annual 
growth rate of 16.5 percent.  There are about 5000 big and small 
enterprises involved in the plastic bag industry, with more then 
half of them in the unorganized sector.  They work in diverse areas 
including plastic film production, bag making and recycling.  Delhi 
alone has about 2000 companies.  India has one of the lowest annual 
per capita consumption of plastics at 4 Kgs as against a per capita 
consumption of 18 Kgs for China and an international average of 20 
Kgs for most developed countries.  Indians also reuse most of the 
plastic bags (60 percent); yet the consumption is expected to 
increase with the growth of super markets, malls and the food 
processing industry.  In the 10 years between 1996 (61,000 tons) to 
2006 (7,500,000 tons), plastics usage has grown over 120 times. 
Thus a ban on plastics as demanded by many NGOs may never happen. 
The ban on usage with no restriction on manufacturing would be of no 
use.  Further a complete ban on manufacturing and usage of plastic 
bags would not be feasible as many Indian companies have a booming 
business of export of plastic bags to leading shopping chains in 
Europe and USA.  This would become illegal if India bans plastic 
bags completely for local use as it is a signatory to Basel 
Convention and cannot export something that it does not use within 
its borders. 
 
-------------------------------------- 
International Experience Varies Widely 
-------------------------------------- 
¶7.  (U) Worldwide, only few countries have a ban on plastic bags. 
The developed countries on account of their better MSW disposal 
system have managed to curtail the plastic waste problem in spite of 
generating more waste.  Cities in USA like San Francisco and 
Portland and several in Europe have now initiated ban on plastic 
bags.   So have Australia and Ireland.  China and South Africa like 
India have a ban on thinner bags.  Only Rwanda and Eritrea in Africa 
have a complete ban, while more African countries are trying to have 
thickness limits imposed on them.  Some of the African countries 
have had some success in reduction of the plastic bag usage by 
adding a tax or surcharge. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
Classification of Indian Plastic Waste and its Disposal 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶8.  (U) Plastics waste in India broadly falls into two categories: 
'Thermoplastics' and 'Thermosets'.  Thermoplastics constitute 80 
percent of the waste and are recyclable.  This includes Polyethylene 
Terephthalate (PET), Low Density Poly Ethylene (LDPE), Poly Vinyl 
Chloride (PVC), High Density Poly Ethylene (HDPE), Polypropylene 
(PP) and Polystyrene (PS).  Thermosets which constitute the 
remaining 20% are not recyclable.  Thermosets contain many 
components including alkyd, epoxy, ester, melamine formaldehyde, 
phenolic formaldehyde, silicon, urea formaldehyde, polyurethane, 
metallized and multilayer plastics.  These plastics when burnt in 
the atmosphere could lead to environment pollution and release of 
toxic gases.  Thermosets are used for making small pouches of 'pan 
masala' (a flavored chewable mixture made with tobacco and betel nut 
as ingredients), shampoo, biscuits and chocolates.  'Pan masala' 
pouches are the key source of revenue for over 50 percent of 
unorganized plastic pouch makers and a major source of contaminating 
plastic waste.  These bags due to their small size and because they 
cannot be recycled are of no value to the "rag pickers". 
 
 
NEW DELHI 00002402  004.2 OF 005 
 
 
¶9.  (U) Currently, only few cities have MSW segregation policies and 
practices.  In some pockets of Bangalore, Mumbai and Ahmedabad there 
is segregation of plastics, other solid waste and biodegradable 
waste.  As mentioned earlier any segregation of MSW and plastics is 
done by the "rag pickers", who make anything between 45 to 60 cents 
per Kg of recyclable plastic waste.  The recycling is mostly done by 
the unorganized companies who may not have access to best practices 
and may employ environmentally harmful means for recycling.  This 
will lead to release of toxic fumes while burning the waste or 
discharge of chemicals like hydrochloric acid and other carcinogenic 
compounds and heavy metals during leaching or recycling.  GOI and 
the states besides legislations have also started charging plastics 
manufacturers for the cost of recycling.  However with no proper 
recycling facility and most of the manufactures being in the 
unorganized sector, this too has not been successful.  The states 
which have nearly 80 percent of India's plastics manufacturing and 
recycling units are Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, 
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamilnadu. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Technologies for Plastic Recycle and Disposal 
--------------------------------------------- 
¶10.  (U) In order to establish the best practices for plastic waste 
management, CPCB has initiated various projects with support from 
other GOI agencies including the Department of Science and 
Technology (DST), MoEF and Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. 
These include: 
* Use of waste plastic along with bitumen for relaying roads 
* Development of environment friendly Plasma Pyrolysis process for 
plastics waste disposal 
* Study of biodegradability and compostability of all plastics and 
create a database 
* Support and verification of technologies which converts 100 
percent of plastic waste directly into fuel of which about 70 
percent would be liquid fuel, 20 percentgas and the rest coke. 
 
¶11.  (U) Many companies around the world have been trying to 
generate fuel from plastic waste, but in most cases the catalysts 
used in the process leave residues which makes the fuel unusable. 
Two technologies in India which have attracted international 
attention are being developed by Unique Waste Plastic Management & 
Research Company (UWPMR), Nagpur and Sustainable Technologies and 
Environmental Projects Ltd (STEPS), Mumbai. Dr. Umesh of UMPMR told 
SciFSN that their technology is one of the most inexpensive and 
clean technologies for managing all types of plastic waste with no 
need for any pre-treatment or sorting.  He also said that many 
Indian companies including Reliance, Hindustan Petroleum and 
international companies like Applied Science Inc in the US and 
Izemitsu in Japan have shown interest in the technology. This 
technology has been licensed to Asian Electronics, a Pune based 
energy efficient lighting company.  The STEPS technology has been 
awarded the gold medal under the Lockheed Martin India Innovation 
growth program, funded by Lockheed Martin and run by the Federation 
of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and 
Innovation, Creativity & Capital (IC2) Institute, University of 
Texas in 2007.  Both companies have 25 Metric tons per day capacity 
facility to convert plastic waste into fuel. 
 
¶12. (U) The CPCB had helped validate the above mentioned 
technologies at the national labs. Dr. Akolkar, Additional Director 
of CPCB told SciFSN that they continue to work on all the above 
plastics waste management technologies and would like to build 
capacity to manage the plastic waste.  He said that CPCB efforts are 
still focused towards the regulation of manufacturing and recycling 
 
NEW DELHI 00002402  005.2 OF 005 
 
 
of plastic waste and establishing good waste disposal technologies. 
CPCB is not in a position to do much about segregation and 
collection of plastic waste.  Further this comes under the municipal 
activity and most of them are still not geared to segregate and 
collect the waste.  He further added that they would very much like 
to learn more about plastic waste management processes, technologies 
and biodegradable plastics from US agencies and companies and would 
like to interact with the US Environment Protection Agency. 
 
----------------- 
Comments 
----------------- 
¶13.  (U) Plastic bags and their proliferation is a menace that is 
recognized by the GOI and the states, hence a slew of legislations 
for their manufacture and use in the last decade. However, there has 
been no effective implementation of the various legislations.  The 
whole country is literally at the mercy of the "rag pickers" and the 
unorganized sector, with the state machinery unable to deal with the 
problem.  India is also becoming a dumping ground for plastic waste 
and e-waste from other countries.  There is an urgent need to 
educate the people (both the consumer and the shop owner or the 
source) about reducing the use of plastic bags and if used, to 
dispose it properly.  Unfortunately in many places even if one were 
interested in disposing the bags carefully, there is no provision of 
garbage bins. Some cities have taken the first steps by outsourcing 
MSW collection. Even if the waste was segregated, the cities and 
town do not have the proper technology to treat or recycle the waste 
in an environment-friendly manner.  Most developmental work in this 
direction is still a work in progress and cannot address the 
immediate issues.  The DST, MoEF and CPCB, the agencies responsible 
for finding solutions to this problem are looking for help and 
support.  Hence it is an opportunity for both the US agencies and 
companies to offer existing best practices and environment-friendly 
technological solutions to mitigate this problem.  The opportunities 
are across the whole spectrum, from waste collection and 
segregation, recycling technologies and practices, disposal 
technologies, biodegradable plastics and even waste based energy 
generation.  End Comment. 
 
MULFORD