Fixing the States Awash in Plastic – NITI Aayog Launches Plastic Waste Management Workshop
In a bid to curb the condition of states plagued by plastic pollution, the NITI Aayog and UNDP India have been conducting joint workshop on Plastic Waste Management specially in coastal regions.
Recently the workshop was launched in Odisha, Jharkhand & West Bengal to promote integrated and sustainable Plastic Waste management in the States. It is the 3rd such regional consultation after Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu.
Addressing the 3rd edition of the NITI Aayog UNDP India Regional Capacity-Building Workshop on Plastic Waste, Special Secretary Dr K. Rajeswara Rao emphasised on the need of bringing Circular Economy in plastic waste management by scaling up best practices.
“Urban Local Bodies (ULBs ) are critical partners for realising the goals of SBM 2.0. We aim to enable greater understanding among the stakeholders at the State & ULB level about practical solutions & efficient business models for managing plastic waste, ” remarks Rao.
Joined by over 40 officials from Urban Local Bodies, Urban Development Departments (UDDs) & State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs), NGOs/ CSOs who learned about various best practices & sustainable models for Plastic Waste Management. About 200 stakeholders will be benefitted through cross-learning from these workshops.
Plastic pollution is global menace as the task of collecting, sorting and recycling plastics often falls to informal waste pickers who work among fires and toxic vapors for little pay. In a landmark move, the agreement in Nairobi for the first time formally recognized the importance of waste pickers in the plastics economy. A Global plastics treaty is the need of the hour since the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, in which nations agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2020, more than 180 nations registered the consent to place limits on exports of plastic waste to poorer countries from richer ones under a framework known as the Basel Convention. The United States has yet to sign on to the new rules, and the Basel Action Network.
