India bans single-use plastic

India's government has introduced a ban on many single use plastics. These disposable items are polluting rivers and poisoning animals.

Less than 70 percent of the four million tonnes of plastic waste which India generates each year is recycled. The rest is dumped in rivers or in landfill sites. Here, plastic fires add to air pollution.

Dr Suneel Panday explains that it lacks economic value.

Dr Suneel Pandey: "The problem is this 30 percent which is not collected, which is no value plastic, and in other terms can be called as single-use plastics."

The shift will lead to some job losses. However, environmentally friendly alternatives will do well and promise new employment opportunities.

One such company, Ecoware, leads the way in ecological single use alternatives. Its founder is Rhea Mazumdar Singhal.

Rhea Mazumdar Singhal: "I just thought, things needed to change for humanity and the environment - and that's really how Ecoware was born.

"We wanted to create a product that was safe for humanity to eat their food out of. By that I mean that it doesn't change the nutritional value of the food that you put in it. Secondly, it had to be safe for the environment. So it wasn't going to sit in a landfill and it's not going to outlive you forever."

In the streets of India, it's now common to see cows eating plastic waste. Even wild elephants' dung is found to contain traces of plastic.

The widespread ban restricts production, sale and importation and includes plastic cups, straws and cotton buds. The aim's for an even wider ban.

Rhea Mazumdar Singhal: "Think about from the time you have woken up today, how much plastic you have touched or came in contact with. So, it has become an integral part of our lives. It is absolutely everywhere. But we have to be cognizant about climate change. We have to be cognizant about our reliance on fossil fuels, the fact that these are things that we need to move away from."

However, opposition to the ban exists. Some believe that the higher prices of plastic-free alternatives make them unrealistic options. The law, though, states that penalties include fines of $1,300 or 5 year jail sentences.

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