India banned single-use plastics almost 2 years ago. Did it work?

A nearly two-year ban in India on single-use plastics (SUP) has failed to stem rampant proliferation and manufacturing of such items across the country, analysts say, putting the blame on the authorities’ “weak enforcement on the ground”.

SUP products such as plastic bags, cutlery, straws, food packaging, and disposable water bottles were outlawed by the government from July 1, 2022.

A senior official at the Federal Agency of Central Pollution Control Board in October 2022 admitted that the measure did not have the desired effect as SUPs, including a banned grade of carry bags, are still circulating in the low-end section of the economy.

Analysts say lax supervision and a reluctance across cost-sensitive small businesses to embrace non-plastic alternatives have made the law toothless in a country that generates about 5.5 million tonnes of SUP waste annually, the New Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said in a February report.

“During the first few months of the ban, actions were taken for non-compliance. Later, the authorities stopped being as watchful,” said Priti Mahesh, chief programme coordinator of environmental NGO Toxics Link in New Delhi.

The regulation could have been successful if different state officials had rolled out a sustained implementation strategy and economically feasible non-plastic substitutes were available, she said.

India – the world’s third-largest producer of SUP waste, according to the CSE report – banned the production, distribution, stocking, and sale of 19 items from the SUP category.

The government in 2021 banned the use of SUP carry bags thinner than 75 microns and last year banned similar products thinner than 120 microns.

But both of these products remained