GK: India to host World Environment Day (ENVIRONMENT)

India will host the World Environment Day celebrations on June 5. UNEP picks a different host country for the official celebration every year. Canada was the host last year.

This year’s theme is “Beat Plastic Pollution”.

UNEP does not maintain comprehensive global plastics pollution data. India was picked because “it is a significant and important country”.

Ockhi Cyclone: Ockhi Cyclone resulted in agglomeration of plastic debris along the coasts of Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa and Gujarat etc., particularly along the major beaches of Mumbai. It has been estimated that about 80 tonnes of waste from the Ocean has been dumped on the city’s coastline due to Ockhi Cyclone. The central government had no emergency plan since clearance of such accumulated plastic debris is being managed by the respective State Governments/Union Territories.

Average Production and Consumption: National Accounts Statistics 2015 of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, which estimated the average production and consumption of plastic products between 2011-12 and 2015-16 at 707 million metric tonnes (MMT) per year.

GoI had notified the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, a “comprehensive revision” of the 2011 Rules. Salient features included “the expansion of the applicability area to include the entire country, the minimum permissible thickness of plastic carry bags increased from 40 to 50 microns; use of waste plastic in co-generation of energy and road construction, plastic waste minimisations, source segregation”.

Plastic Parks: The government has been more specific about its plans to set up “plastic parks”.

In March 2015, replying to a question from Sasaram Lok Sabha MP Chhedi Paswan (BJP), the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers said the government had approved a scheme for “setting up of need-based plastic parks with requisite state-of-the-art infrastructure and enabling common facilities, to assist the sector move up the value chain and contribute to the economy more effectively”. The Government of India provides grant funding up to 50% of the project cost, subject to a ceiling of Rs 40 crore per project under the scheme, the reply said.

More recently, on February 6, 2018, the Centre said it had approved 10 plastic parks based on proposals from state governments. 

Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/questions-on-plastic-limited-data-diffused-focus-in-parliament-replies-world-environment-day-5073313/