You may have heard that single-use was crowned the word of the year in 2018 by the Collins dictionary. The United Nations declared single-use plastic items as one of the significant elements of rising global warming, particularly ocean pollution. Plastic carry bags, plastic sheets, cooling films, single-use plastic cups, plates, spoons, forks, straw, dishes, paper cups, plastic water pouches, plastic juice packets, pet bottles under 300 ml capacity, plastic garbage bag, PVC flex materials and plastic packets are the main culprits that adversely affect our ecosystems, and are also linked to air pollution. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), global plastic waste is set to almost triple by 2060, with around half ending up in landfills and less than a fifth recycled. Annual production of fossil-fuel-based plastics are set to top 1.2 billion tons by 2060 and waste to exceed one billion tons. Recent government data suggests that India's plastic waste generation has more than doubled in the last five years with an average annual increase of 21.8 per cent. Union Cabinet Minister of Labour and Employment, Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav recently revealed that the country is generating about 3.5 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, more than 34 lakh tons of plastic waste was generated in 2019-20 and 30.59 lakh tons in 2018-19.
Governments globally have made several efforts to raise, and more and more initiatives, bans, bills are being passed to beat plastic pollution. The government of India has lunched several initiatives to tackle the challenge of plastic pollution including the National Dashboard on Elimination of Single Use Plastic and Plastic Waste Management to track the progress made for elimination of single-use plastic (SUP) and effective management of such waste; the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Portal for plastic Packaging for improving accountability, traceability, transparency and facilitating ease of reporting compliance to EPR obligations by producers, importers and brand-owners and a mobile app for Single Use Plastics Grievance Redressal was also launched to empower citizens to check sale/usage/manufacturing of SUP in their area and tackle the plastic menace.
Joining the Centre’s efforts many State Governments are doing what they can to rid the use of single-use plastic and implement means of both recycling and up-cycling throughout the country. Even though the implementation process and acceptance rate is slow about banning and terminating the use of plastic completely, these destinations in India are trying to eliminate the use of plastic. If you are a conscious traveller and are looking to travel domestic, here are few destinations you can add to your bucket list.