India has become the first Asian country to develop a plastics pact, launching a ground-breaking new initiative to bring together leading businesses at a national level to make commitments for building a circular system for plastics.
The India Plastics Pact (IPP) has launched as a collaboration between:
- WWF India
- the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The pact is supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and WRAP, and endorsed by the British High Commission in India.
In Autumn 2020, UKRI committed £250,000 of funding to:
- enable WRAP to establish the India Plastics Pact
- initiate start-up
- engage the Indian government
- develop the appropriate targets and priority work streams for India.
Aim of the pact
- Commitments under the pact are aimed at keeping plastic packaging in the economy and out of natural environment.
- It mentioned 17 businesses including major FMCG brands, manufacturers, retailers and recyclers who have committed with the pact as founding members. Nine businesses have joined as supporting organisations.
- The pact provides for time-bound targets of reducing, innovating and re-imagining plastic packaging.
- It aims to define a list of unnecessary or problematic plastic packaging & items and take measures to address these problems with the help of redesign and innovation, by 2030.
- Under the pact, 100 per cent of plastic packaging will be made reusable or recyclable, 50 per cent of plastic packaging will be effectively recycled and 25 per cent average recycled content will be made across all plastic packaging.
Plastic waste in India
India generates about 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste annually. Out of this, 40 per cent are not collected. In India, half of all plastics production are used in packaging and most of it is single use plastic.
Who provide support to plastic pacts?
UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) and WRAP fully support the plastic pact in India. They also support plastics pacts in Europe, US, Australia, and Africa.
