Are stricter regulations on bioplastics the key to environmental sustainability?

This post on Strict rule on Bioplastic has been created based on the article “Ministry of Environment tightens rules on bioplastics” published in “The Hindu” on 21 March 2024.  

Why in the news? 

The Environment Ministry has recently introduced rules that make it harder for makers of disposable plastic ware to label such products as ‘biodegradable’. It has stipulated that disposable plastic ware makers must not leave any microplastics behind.  

Biodegradable plastic  It involves plastic goods being treated before they are sold.  

Compostable plastics  They degrade but require industrial or large municipal waste management facilities to do so.  

What are the recent changes? 

As per new amendments to India’s Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2024, biodegradable plastics will be defined as materials which are not only capable of degradation by biological processes in specific environments such as soil, or landfill but also as materials that do not leave any microplastics.  

What are the issues with recent changes?  

1) The rules do not specify which chemical tests can be used to establish the absence of microplastics.  

2)The rules do not specify up to what extent microplastics must be reduced in a sample to consider them eliminated.  

3) Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has refused to provide makers of disposable plastic ware with a ‘provisional certificate’ to license their products as biodegradable.   

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