Why in the News?

• The plastic industry has come under renewed scrutiny for allegedly deploying tactics to influence environmental policy in its favour, particularly during global treaty negotiations on plastic pollution.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Plastic Industry (Introduction, Copying Tactics of Tobacco Industry, Global South Expansion, India’s Plastic Policy, Industry Lobbying, etc.)

Introduction

• In recent years, environmental experts have grown increasingly concerned over the plastic industry’s influence on green policy-making.
• Reports and investigations indicate that the industry, backed by powerful fossil fuel interests, has employed tactics strikingly similar to those once used by the tobacco industry:
  • sowing public doubt,
  • delaying regulation, and
  • manipulating narratives to shift responsibility from corporations to consumers.
• These strategies are gaining prominence as governments globally attempt to tighten controls on plastic production and waste, particularly through the formulation of a potential UN treaty on plastic pollution.

Echoes of the Tobacco Industry Playbook

• The plastic industry’s approach to avoiding regulatory pressure mirrors several historical tactics of the tobacco industry:
• Shifting Responsibility to Consumers
  • While tobacco ads famously carried disclaimers like “Smoking is injurious to health”, even as they promoted smoking, the plastic industry blames consumers for not recycling effectively, thereby sidestepping the industry's responsibility in creating unsustainable plastic systems.
• Funding Misleading Science and PR
  • Just as tobacco companies funded studies to deny smoking-related health risks, internal records from major plastic producers show they promoted plastic recycling from the 1980s onward despite privately acknowledging its technical and economic limitations.
  • Public campaigns highlighting recyclability served to stall bans and stricter regulations.
• Greenwashing and Mislabelling
  • Much like “light” cigarettes falsely marketed as healthier, today’s biodegradable and compostable plastics often fail to break down as claimed, especially in India’s underdeveloped waste management systems.
  • Corporate greenwashing further distorts consumer understanding and weakens public demand for accountability.
  • One prominent example was Coca-Cola, which, despite promoting its sustainability image, quietly dropped its target of 25% reusable packaging by 2030 and backtracked on key recycling goals.

Targeting the Global South for Expansion

• With regulatory pressure mounting in the Global North, the plastic industry has increasingly turned toward low- and middle-income nations to maintain market growth.
• According to the OECD’s Global Plastic Outlook (2022):

• Plastic consumption is expected to more than double in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2060.
• In Asia, it could triple during the same period.
• In contrast, growth is expected to be just 15% in Europe and 34% in North America.

• Weaker environmental regulations, limited public awareness, and ineffective waste management infrastructure in these regions make them more vulnerable to plastic pollution and industry manipulation.

India’s Plastic Policy Landscape

• India has taken several steps to curb plastic pollution, but faces implementation challenges.
• Informal Sector: Backbone of India’s Plastic Recycling
  • An estimated 70% of India’s recycled plastic is collected and processed by the informal sector, ragpickers, sorters, and grassroots recyclers, who work in hazardous conditions with little legal protection or social security.
  • Recognising their contribution, the National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE) scheme launched in 2024 aims to:
    • Integrate waste workers into formal systems
    • Provide them with Ayushman Bharat health insurance, safety gear, and social security

• As of May 2025:
  • Over 80,000 workers had been profiled
  • 45,700+ received personal protective equipment
  • 26,400+ were issued Ayushman Bharat cards

• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
  • India’s Plastic Waste Management Rules (2016, amended 2022) mandate manufacturers to take financial and operational responsibility for the plastic they generate.
  • However, enforcement remains weak:

• Only 11% of single-use plastic waste is covered by India’s current ban
• Fewer than 50% of producers are reportedly complying with EPR guidelines

• This undermines progress and allows the industry to continue unchecked in many areas.

Industry Lobbying in Global Negotiations

• Recent rounds of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for a global plastics treaty have been notably influenced by industry lobbying.
• At INC-3, fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists outnumbered their previous participation by 36%
• Civil society groups raised concerns about industry-backed delegates slowing down progress on binding commitments
• Internal documents and reports from the Centre for Climate Integrity and Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL) have exposed how the plastic industry has long known the inadequacy of recycling as a solution but continued to promote it to avoid scrutiny.