World Environmental Health Day is celebrated every year to explore the relationship between humans and environment they live in.
It was in 2011 that the International Federation of Environmental Health announced World Environmental Health Day to be celebrated every year on September 26. This day is focused on creating awareness about environmental health.
The theme for this year’s World Environmental Health Day is: Global Environmental Public Health: Standing up to protect everyone’s Health each and every day.
Notably environmental health is one of the largest fields within public health because numerous ways of external forces can impact how people eat, live, and grow. These forces can be about addressing the natural environment but they can also be the consequence of human beings’ actions. On this day, various organisations get together to raise awareness about the importance of environmental health and explore methods to protect the environment.
Among others, plastic pollution remains to be an area of concern and it does more harm than good. The perils of plastic pollution are manifold.
According to Environment, Forest and Climate Change, unmanaged and littered plastic waste including plastic packaging waste has adverse impacts on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
Plastic pollutes the soil and contaminates water with harmful chemicals. It also contributes to about 4.5 per cent of the total global greenhouse gas emissions, according to credible estimates.
There are several rules and regulations dealing with the subject. The Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, provides the statutory framework for plastic waste management in an environmentally sound manner throughout the country, the government says. Considering the adverse effect of littered single use plastic items on terrestrial, aquatic and marine ecosystems, the Ministry of environment, forest and climate change notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, prohibiting identified single use plastic items, which have low utility and high littering potential. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has also notified the guidelines on the Extended Producer Responsibility for plastic packaging vide Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2022.
Under Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the states and UTs are required to set up institutional mechanisms for enforcement of provisions of Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 through State Pollution Control Boards and Pollution Control Committees.
While laws and rules are there, “beating plastic pollution” should be a continuous process and all measures need to be taken in this regard.
