Dr. Sayam Sen Gupta (Professor, Department of Chemical Sciences, IISER, Kolkata, Email: sayam.sengupta@iiserkol.ac.in) receiving National Teachers Award for the year 2023 from Hon’ble President of India, Shrimati Draupadi Murmu (5th Sept 2023)
Plastic packaging is in the “eye-of-the-storm” with regard to increasing concerns about sustainability and waste management. The sheer diversity of size, shape and form of packaged goods makes the problem daunting and solutions challenging. The short life-cycle of packaging materials brings them clearly within the ambit of single use plastics (SUP). The complex need to balance the consumer products industry, consumer convenience, absence of easy substitutes, city Governments inability to manage plastic wastes has created an environmental disaster in most cities in India. The general messaging from the plastics industry is that “plastics do not pollute” but “it is the people who pollute”; and if somehow we can change the culture of the people so that they do not indiscriminately throw away used plastics the problem will go away. The second view is that since all packaging plastics can be infinitely recycled, which a solution that is readily available is and, hence, the problem is either non-existent or being overhyped.
Such simplistic thinking about this problem is counterproductive and distracts us from addressing the problem rationally and seriously. In this lecture, I will illustrate how scientific research allows plastics used in packaging to be “recycled” (not “downcycled”) to virgin quality materials, capable of being used again as packaging materials at a cost that is competitive with virgin plastics. For those packaging materials, which cannot be “recycled” back to virgin quality materials (on account of reasons such as contamination, hygiene etc.) a safe, environmentally acceptable and benign resting place must be found. All packaging materials that cannot meet either of the above two conditions must be phased out progressively. I will present examples of emerging science and technology that show the promise of mitigating the problem so that we may continue to enjoy the significant advantages offered by plastic packaging without having to confront the adverse effects of the material after use in our environment.
