After Single-Use Plastic Ban, What Are The Alternatives And Why Is It So Hard To Find Them?

For close to two weeks now, some 19 single-use plastic items have been banned in India, but except for the carry bag, end users are yet to feel the impact of it yet.

But this will soon change as several items ranging from earbuds to flags, candy, and ice-cream sticks, decorative thermocol, PVC banners less than 100 microns thick, stirrers, wrapping films, cups, glasses, and straws will soon disappear from the shops, once their current stock runs out and the grace period like in Delhi is over.

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Where are the alternatives?

And that is when the problem is going to start - because till now there are no proper alternatives for any of the banned SUP items in the market.

That is because despite being given a nearly five-year window since 2016 when the SUP ban was first proposed, companies did not invest seriously in finding alternatives.

Even after August 2021, when the government made it clear in no uncertain terms that SUPs are going to be banned from July 1, 2022, it did not pick up the pace, and many including FMCG companies were hoping to get yet another selective extension of the deadline for them, which did not happen.

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The nature of plastics and the many uses it has makes them impossible to be replaced with one or a handful of alternatives and for almost all the SUP items that are now banned, different materials should be used to make replacements.

Tableware from sugarcane pulp

That is what Chuk is trying to do. Made with sugarcane pulp, Chuk is eco-friendly and biodegradable tableware that aims to replace single-use plastic plates.

It is owned by Ayodhya-based Yash Pakka, which started as a paper manufacturer over four decades ago.

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"Chuk was founded in 2017 by Ved Krishna, with an aim to replace plastic with something compostable. That is how he decided to focus on tableware. Chuk plates are made from sugarcane pulp, which is washed to remove impurities and then tuned into a slurry form and molded into the forms and shapes we want," Satish Chamyvelumani, CEO of Chuk told Indiatimes.

Even the finished products are packed in biodegradable boxes and the company recycles and reuses almost the entire water that is used in the cleaning process.

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Since Chuk plates are comparatively a little more expensive than plastic ones, in the initial days the company struggled to sell its products.

This has now changed and as awareness among people grows Chuk tableware is now finding its place including on tables of some top restaurant brands.

Chuk today has a capacity of processing 160 tonnes of sugarcane pulp per day, which the company aims to increase to 225 tonnes by next year and 500 tonnes in the next few years.

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There is on one material to replace them all

But sugarcane pulp has its limitations and cannot be a replacement for single-use plastic for all purposes.

"Can sugarcane pulp replace all single-use plastic products? probably no. It can't be used to make plastic bags and other similar products. There are other alternatives like cornstarch, paper, PLA, etc, which can be used to replace at least one plastic item," he said.

Dr. Vijay Habbu, Adjunct Professor, Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai agrees. He said that plastic was invented as a chemically resistant, durable, lightweight, affordable, and recyclable alternative to materials like natural fibers, metal, and wood, etc used till then.

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According to him, plastic became the perceived villain because humankind did not get enough time to learn correctly about it and how to dispose of it at the end of its lifecycle.

"We need to first ask if there is a need to replace all of them. The answer is no. A classic case is a plastic cup, just imagine replacing it with paper, which will get soggy the moment some liquid is poured into it. But now for the sake of replacing plastic cups paper cups laced with a plastic coating are being pushed. When a plastic layer is added to the paper, it becomes not paper or plastic, but MLP which cannot be recycled," Dr Habbu explained.

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He also pointed out that the source of most items that are projected as biodegradable alternatives to plastics are paper or other agri-based ones, which would mean that more trees would be cut and more land would be used to cultivate them instead of growing food.

"Everyone wants to save the environment, but nobody knows exactly what they want to do. Do they want to save resources, reduce emissions, or litter, nobody is clear? If you look at the life cycle analysis, the paper cup has a larger carbon footprint than a plastic one," he said.

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If not banned then what?

He, however, said that the quest for alternatives should continue and no other product in the future should be given the monopoly-like what happened with plastic.

"In my opinion, it is difficult to have another product which will give you environmental safety, human safety, durable, lightweight, and cheap," he said.

Instead of going after SUPs, Dr. Habbu said the focus should be on MLPs which are not recyclable.

"The most practical alternative is by moving from MLP type 2 to MLP type 1 and from MLP type 1 to single polymers wherever possible. Increasing thickness is also a step in the right direction. Then there are items that are perfectly alright to be banned like plastic flags, and wrapping films that are unnecessary. In addition to these if there are eco-friendly alternatives that people are willing to pay for, then go for it," he said.

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What can individuals do?

Other than the policy-level interventions and bans, he also said that there are several steps that we as individuals to reduce the dependency on SUPs.

"At an individual level, you can do two things reduce it where it is not needed and replace it where it is sensible. For example, you don't have to get all your vegetables packed in different carry bags. You can always pack them in one textile bag or other fiber bags that can be used multiple times. When you buy groceries online, make sure that they are all delivered in one order and not as 2-3 shipments. Make a habit of storing all the SUPs that you end up bringing home and sell them at the end of the month," he said.

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