The Menace of Single use Plastic: Hell! or Hoax?

Come 2nd October, 2019, the Jayanti of Swacch Bharat programme, the single use plastics are slated to be banned. But there is extensive skepticism that the plans are not going to succeed, without putting the society into extensive inconvenience. To avoid such a situation the government must expeditiously gear up to provide the alternatives, for which She has the opportunity to assess the imperatives and if necessary re-design the regulatory instrument(s) while estimating the time to ban and allied resources needed. Both the dominant applications and the limitations of alternatives have been compared and using tools like Force Field Analysis and Failure Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) the supremacy of plastics is evaluated if it were real or a hoax. It is argued that the provisions in the existing law or act just provide for requirements and not solutions. Some of the initiatives towards combating the various ills, across a few countries have been considered and it is argued that both a regulatory and a voluntary action need be launched, both by the industry and the individuals. The provisions in such a public private partnership utilizing both the ensembles of 4R’s and innovation may be necessary to combat the menace. The examples stated help us conclude that however small the initiatives may be, but the process of Change of behavior and for 4R’s has already started, may be it is modest, but thankfully it will further the drive for swachh Bharat. To achieve success it is proposed that these 4 R’s should be practiced vide a system based approach. How to cite this article: Thareja P, Thareja P. The Menace of Single use Plastic: Hell! or Hoax? J Adv Res Mfg Mater Sci Met Engr 2019; 6(3&4): 29-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24321/2393.8315.201903