Green Action Week 2022

PLAN Foundation completed Green Action Week 2022 action plan in Shimla.

Campaign to focus on sustainable consumption, effective implementation of ban on single use plastic and E-waste management.

5 community workshops were organized by PLAN Foundation under Green Action Week Campaign India 2022 in Shimla. In this workshops, Panchayat’s self-help group along resource persons from the foundation discussed the issue of plastic and increase of plastic waste is city and adjoining forests. The event Organized in support of CUTS International Jaipur, emphasis was laid on discouraging the use of plastic, encouraging eco-friendly behavior.

Green Action Week (GAW), observed each year during the first week of October (Oct. 3-9, 2022), is a global people’s campaign to promote sustainable consumption. Around 60 organisations in 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, North- and South America are participating in the campaign in 2022. Green Action Week is an initiative by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) and is carried out in India coordinated by CUTS International, a global consumer advocacy group, headquartered in Jaipur.

“Sharing Community” is the theme for the campaign in 2022. Since 2018, campaign has focused on encouraging cultures of sharing and collaboration. This year campaign will discuss and implement ways that can bring more equal and sustainable access to goods and services for the benefit of the people and the planet, through sharing and collaboration.

“Recently, India banned the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of identified single-use plastic items, which have low utility and high littering potential, all across the country from July 1, 2022. During 1950 to 2015, around 8.3 billion metric tons (BMTs) of plastic had been produced globally, and of this, 80 per cent – 6.3 BMTs – was accounted as plastic waste. Plastic pollution soared from two million tons in 1950, to 348 million tons in 2017, becoming a global industry valued at $522.6 billion, said United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) Report (2019-20) had stated that 3.5 million metric tons of plastic waste are generated in India annually. It is expected to double in capacity, by 2040.

In 2019, the world produced 53.6 million metric ton (MT) of e-waste; Asia accounted for the largest share of this dump is 24.9 MT. India, the third largest producer of e-waste after China and the US, generated 3.2 MT, with a per capita generation figure of 2.4 kg. Despite the government’s initiatives, 90 per cent of this waste is handled and managed by the informal sector – unsustainably. The world is predicted to produce 75 million metric tons of e-waste by 2030. This year’s campaign is positioned to support effective implementation of ban single use plastic, proper management of e-waste and educate people about ways to consume sustainably, said George Cheriyan, Director, CUTS International.