Plastic is ubiquitous-found everywhere from the depths of our oceans and the outskirts of landfills to the very trails we tread during our morning walks. It is propelling us toward an environmental catastrophe. The 2025 World Environment Day theme, Beat Plastic Pollution, underscores the urgent global call to eliminate plastic pollution.
This year’s focus is on identifying and implementing solutions to plastic pollution. Yet, while much attention has been paid to downstream impacts-such as waste management and recycling-it is imperative that we also address upstream issues, including plastic production, trade, and import policies.
Are bans the solution? In India, over 25 states have imposed bans on single-use plastics. However, bans, clean-up drives, and recycling campaigns have all fallen short of achieving significant impact. Why? The primary reason is the failure to regulate plastic across its entire life cycle-from production and manufacturing to distribution, usage, and final disposal.
I say this not just as a campaigner or anti-plastic advocate, or because I have been closely following the discussions around the Global Plastic Treaty, but because I, like everyone else, am literally living, eating, and breathing plastic. A stark reminder of this reality is the recent discovery of microplastics in human blood. In this context, clean-up campaigns often serve more as symbolic gestures than as genuine solutions-diverting attention from the structural reforms we need. Public policy still treats plastic pollution largely as a litter problem, which is a dangerously narrow perspective.
Do we remain complicit-clinging to convenience and the comfort of the status quo? How long will we ignore the broader truth, reducing this crisis to one of mere consumer irresponsibility? While that factor is not insignificant, the problem is far more systemic.
As consumers, we must demand a reduction in plastic production as a critical first step. It is also unfair to expect consumers alone to fix a broken system through recycling efforts. Ending plastic pollution demands internationally binding agreements, enforced by governments, implemented by industries, and supported by civil society.
– Kodandera Mamatha Subbaiah
