Definition
Discarded plastic products and packaging that persist in the environment for decades or centuries, breaking down into microplastics and polluting land, rivers, oceans, air and food chains.
Background and evolution
Plastics are synthetic polymers, mostly made from oil and gas, that are cheap, light, durable and easy to mould. Those same qualities make them a waste problem. Mass production began after the Second World War, and global output has grown to hundreds of millions of tonnes a year. A large share is used once, for packaging, and thrown away within minutes, yet the material can survive for generations.
Only a small fraction of all plastic ever produced has been recycled. The rest has been burned, buried in landfills or leaked into the environment. In India, much recycling is done by an informal network of waste pickers, scrap dealers and small recyclers who collect high-value plastics such as PET bottles, while low-value multi-layered packaging, like chip packets and sachets, has little market and ends up in drains, dumps and rivers. Burning such waste in the open releases toxic gases.
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