Modi Wants to Take Away India’s Plastic Bags and Spoons
- Campaign to limit single-use plastics to be launched Oct. 2
- Banning not enough, waste management is critical, say experts
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg
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India has a mammoth plastic waste problem and no easy way to dispose of the 9.4 million tons it generates each year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to fix that. Fresh from his campaign to provide tens of millions of toilets for India’s citizens, he’s now aiming to limit the consumption of single-use plastic -- bags, cups, straws, disposable cutlery -- and eliminate its use by 2022. The initiative, to be launched Wednesday, marks the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi who wanted everyone to “be his own scavenger.”