The governance of plastic in India: towards a just transition for recycling in the unorganised sector
Aravindhan Nagarajan
Abstract
In the case of plastic waste regulations, existing policy frameworks ignore that recycling in developing countries is largely undertaken within the unorganised sector. To add to this policies such as Single Use Plastic (SUP) bans disproportionately penalise unorganised sector recycling units and workers employed within them. This paper seeks to identify the global framework of waste minimisation and the lacunae in its implementation in the case of plastic waste in India. This will be based on analysis of national level regulations on plastic waste, court cases in the High Courts of India, and results of a primary field survey of unorganised sector plastic recycling units in Mumbai. By doing so, this paper seeks to explain the importance of recycling as a productive activity, and the need to incorporate concerns of workers and small-scale enterprise owners from the unorganised sector, in order to achieve a just transition to sustainable plastic waste management.