ICAR Organizes Workshop on ‘Awareness on Single Use Plastic Pollution’

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi organized a Workshop on “Awareness on Single Use Plastic Pollution” at the National Agricultural Science Centre Complex.  The workshop was organized as part of “Swachhta Hi Sewa” Pakhwara being celebrated by all the establishments under the DARE / ICAR.

Highlighting the theme, Dr. Shiv Prasad Kimothi, ADG (Technical Coordination), ICAR and Nodal Officer Swachh Bharat Mission for DARE / ICAR briefed about the programmes for preventing the use of single use plastic by all the ICAR Institutes during this Pakhwara. He called upon the audience to stop using the single use plastic themselves and spread the awareness among the masses. Dr. Kimothi called upon the scientific community for working towards developing the cheaper alternatives to plastics as the packaging materials. He also thanked the audience for their keen interest in addressing this challenging issue.

Dr. Sanjeev Saxena, ADG (Intellectual Property & Technology Management Unit and National Agricultural Science Fund), ICAR highlighted about the various health hazards posed by the use of single use plastics. Dr. Saxena stressed on the need to look for other alternatives which can help in making the use of plastics viable and safe for the environment. He urged the people to look for the ways that can help in recycling the use of the plastics instead of dumping or burning them. 

Dr. R.K. Singh, Project coordinator, CIPHET, Ludhiana deliberated about the various factors that affect the environment by the single use plastics. He highlighted the fact that the single use plastic is a form of hydro-carbon. So, burning such types of plastics generates the pure form of carbon dioxide that is hazardous to not only for the environment, but the human health and lives too. He also stressed and urged the government agencies’ roles to make the disposal systems of the plastics to be strong.

Shri Piyush Kwatra, a Social Worker from Mumbai emphasized on the human tendencies to litter the waste materials on the roads. By citing the Swedish Word - “Ploughing” that stands for “Plucking + Jogging”, Shri Kwatra highlighted the role being played by his team to just clean the roads of the city while they go for jogging in the morning. He urged the people to be more responsible towards the cleaner and greener environment and make their contributions countable. 

During the workshop, various uses and hazards of the plastic and its allied forms were discussed and various safety measures were suggested to stop the use of single use plastics.