TURNING TRASH INTO TREASURE

Long description

Economic growth and changing consumption and production patterns are resulting into rapid increase in generation of waste plastics in the world. The world’s annual consumption of plastic materials have increased from around 5 million tonnes in the 1950s to nearly 100 million tonnes; thus, 20 times more plastic is produced today than 50 years ago. This implies that on one hand, more resources are being used to meet the increased demand of plastic, and on the other hand, more plastic waste is being generated. In Asia and the Pacific, as well as many other developing regions, plastic consumption has increased much more than the world average due to rapid urbanization and economic development.   Due to the increase in generation, waste plastics are becoming a major stream in solid waste. After food waste and paper waste, plastic waste is the third major constitute at municipal and industrial waste in cities. Even the cities with low economic growth have started producing more plastic waste due to increased use of plastic packaging, plastic shopping bags, PET bottles and other goods/appliances using plastic as the major component.   This increase has turned into a major challenge for local authorities, responsible for solid waste management and sanitation. Due to lack of integrated solid waste management, most of the plastic waste is neither collected properly nor disposed of in appropriate manner to avoid its negative impacts on environment and public health and waste plastics are causing littering and choking of sewerage system.

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