Plastic Waste – Should Plastic and Oil Companies Take Responsibility?

The sight of plastic littering the streets in Indian towns and villages is common these days.
In April this year the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) informed the Supreme Court that India generates 56 lakhtonnes of plastic waste annually, with Delhi accounting for a staggering 689.5 tonnes a day.

It is a fact that plastic will never degrade and remain on the landscape for several years. Egged on by the overflowing landfills and paucity of space for more landfill sites, a lot of thought is being put into recycling and effective waste disposal of plastic products.

While it is indeed the responsibility of citizens and muncipalities to tackle the problem. We also believe that the manufacturers of plastic products need to pitch in too. Keeping this in mind we looked at the CSR initiatives of large Plastic manufacturing companies and Oil companies.

12 plastic companies are listed in the ET 500 list. None of the companies websites mention plastic waste initiatives.

Similarly we studied the Oil companies. There are 10 Oil companies listed in ET 500 list. Out of these 8 companies have CSR/Sustainability presence. And of these 8 only 3 companies Essar Oil, GAIL and Reliance Industries have initiatives regarding Plastic and Waste management.

GAIL website talks about plastic waste but there does not seem to be any CSR initiative mentioned on the website that takes up this issue. Essar Oil conducts ‘No Plastic’ drives at its Jamnagar (Gujarat) and other sites to spread the message to employees and neighboring communities.

Reliance has a CSR initiative that tackles this problem. A zero garbage campaign has been launched in Reliance Townships, Hazira and Surat to propagate the concept of solid waste (dry and wet waste) management. Further, RIL in partnership with Gujarat Engineering Research Institute (GERI) and R & B Department constructed a 900 meter road stretch using 5% plastic waste.

Sources

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/et500list.cms
http://www.ril.com/html/aboutus/social_resp_comm_dev.html
http://www.essar.com/section_level2.aspx?cont_id=i9lFYO4hjfw=
http://www.gail.nic.in/final_site/aboutcsr.html#

Note –
1. This blog post mentions Plastic Waste Initiatives in the context of initiatives taken for the community only.
2. The Post does not account for initiatives undertaken as part of manufacturing process.
3. All Information on waste initiatives has been sourced from company websites only