Plastic Parks Scheme: Key Facts

The Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers has recently approved to set up ten plastic parks in the country. The parks are being set up under the Plastic Park scheme that was launched in 2019. The plastic parks or to be set up in Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand.

Highlights

A plastic park is a zone of industries that is dedicated to plastic and related sectors. Out of the 10 plastic parks 6 are being implemented currently in the above-mentioned States. The draft plan for the rest of the four is under processing. The Government of India has sealed the project cost of setting up of the park at Rs 40 crore per project. The rest of the cost is to be borne by the state government. The details were presented by the Union Minister for Chemicals and fertilizers Shri Sadananda Gowda in Rajya Sabha.

Need for the scheme

The share of India in the Global market of plastics is very low. The Global trade of plastics is 1 trillion USD. The share of India in the Global trade is merely 1%.

About the scheme

The plastic Park scheme aims to increase the competitiveness and value addition in the plastic processing industry. This is to be achieved through research and development led measures. In India the plastic industry is classified into two categories. The first one is manufacturing of polymers which are called upstream category. The second are the industries that are involved in conversion of processable polymers into useful end products. These industries are classified as downstream. The processable Polymers are plastic raw materials.

 Challenges

Recycling is a major challenge in India. In India only 60 percentage of plastic waste gets recycled. The pollution caused by plastic is threatening aquatic resources at a larger scale. More changes have to be introduced to the draft National plastic and packaging industry development policy 2019.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2020