It’s a known fact that single-use plastic waste people leave behind after outdoor events and activities has a detrimental effect on the environment. No matter if it is a plain, a riverside, a desert, or a hilltop, it seems travellers have left behind plastic waste in all natural locations. Littering is emerging as a huge problem that is threatening these locations for their fragile ecology and aesthetic value.

Last week at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, in United States, one visitor tossed away an open bag of Cheetos. It served as a snack for the mould of the cave. One of the most visited places in New Mexico, the cave in the park welcomed almost 400,000 visitors last year.

In response, park rangers painstakingly removed mould and microbial growth along the path leading to the cave, which is biggest cave chamber by volume in North America-for 20 minutes. And all this was because of the bag of Cheetos dropped by the careless visitor.

The National Park’s social media account now shared a statement regarding the incident, explaining that we affect the world around us in subtle ways, whether it be purposeful or not.

The post reads, “To the owner of the snack bag, the impact is likely incidental. But to the ecosystem of the cave, it had a huge impact.”

“The processed corn, softened by the humidity of the cave, formed the perfect environment to host microbial life and fungi. Cave crickets, mites, spiders, and flies soon organise into a temporary food web, dispersing the nutrients to the surrounding caves and formations. Moulds spread higher up the nearby surfaces, fruit, die, and stink. And the cycle continues.”

“Rangers spent twenty minutes carefully removing the foreign debris and moulds from the cave surfaces. Some members of this fleeting ecosystem are cave dwellers, but many of the microbial life and moulds are not. At the scale of human perspective, a spilt snack bag may seem trivial, but to the life of the cave, it can be world-changing. Great or small, we all leave an impact wherever we go. Let us all leave the world a better place than we found it.”

This eye-opening incident is a reminder that our reliance on convenience comes at a significant cost to the planet, and mindful travel is more important than ever.

New research published in the journal Nature has said that India is responsible for around one-fifth of global plastic emissions of around 9.3 million metric tonnes (Mt) per year.

The rate places India at the top of the emitters’ list, whereas the study places China, generally considered to be the greatest committer, fourth.

Plastic emissions includes materials that have moved from controlled systems for waste, however basic, managed or mismanaged, to the environment where they are under no control.

According to the study, conducted by researchers at the University of Leeds, plastic emissions are highest in southern Asian, sub-Saharan African, and southeast Asian countries.

It estimated Nigeria produces 3.5 Mt of plastics per year, ahead of Indonesia with 3.4 Mt/year and China with 2.8 Mt/year.

“Previous studies highlighted China as a high plastic polluter because they used much older data on the country’s waste management” researcher and study co-author Ed Cook told The Hindu. “However, in the last 15 years, China has improved its waste management substantially and is approaching a point where it has a comprehensive collection system. Remember that China is fast approaching high-income group status and more monetary resources than India.”

India’s plastic problem

India has emerged as one of the world’s largest plastic polluters for several reasons, according to Cook. “Firstly, there is a large and increasing population which is becoming more affluent. That means more and more waste, and the country has struggled to keep pace with providing waste management services. In a way this is a typical situation seen in other countries, but it is more pronounced in India because of the large number of people.”

Dumping sites in the country are home to uncontrolled land disposal and outnumber sanitary landfills 10 to 1. The country’s official waste generation rate, estimated to be 0.12 kg per capita per day, is possibly underestimated while waste collection is overestimated, the study noted.

While India claims to have a national waste collection coverage of around 95%, the study found evidence that official statistics don’t include rural areas, open burning of uncollected waste, and waste recycled by the informal sector.

Data used in the study indicates collection average of 81% for India.

Around 5.8 Mt of plastic solid waste is openly burned each year in India.

Other findings of the study

Researchers used machine learning to develop an inventory of macroplastics that pollute the environment from 50,702 municipalities based on five land-based sources: uncollected waste, littering, collection system, uncontrolled disposal, and rejects from sorting and reprocessing.

Around 69%, or 35.7 Mt, per year of the world’s plastic waste comes from 20 countries, four of which are low-income (LIC), nine are lower-middle-income (LMC), and seven are upper-middle-income (UMC), the study paper said.

High-income countries have higher plastic waste generation rates but none are ranked in the top 90 polluters, mostly due to 100% collection coverage and controlled disposal.

Despite lower plastic waste generation rates in LICs, LMCs, and UMCs, a large part of it is either uncollected or disposed of in dumping sites, contributing to uncontrolled disposal.

The study also reported more plastic waste is burned than is emitted as debris (physical particles larger than 5 mm) worldwide, which may have a significant impact on human health and ecosystems.

Shortcomings in local and national waste management systems are more evident on a per-capita basis. For example the study found China to be the world’s fourth-largest absolute emitter but 153rd on a per-capita basis. Similarly, India ranked 1 but 127th per capita. Russia on the other hand is the world’s fifth-largest absolute emitter but also has high per-capita emissions, reportedly due to low levels of controlled disposal.

In the Global South, uncollected waste is the largest contributor to plastic pollution. It accounts for 68% of all plastic waste emissions and 85% of all debris emissions, the study estimated. According to the researchers, no other global plastic pollution models explicitly identify uncollected waste as the main source of pollution. Mostly, this is clubbed with “mismanaged waste”.

In high-income countries, littering is the largest source of plastic emissions, accounting for 53% of debris emissions and 49% of all plastic emissions in the Global North.

Mismanagement of rejects from plastics sorting and recycling systems in both Global North and Global South adds around 1 Mt/year of plastic waste emission to the environment, thus showing that it is a comparatively small emissions burden even though it has previously been the focal point of research in the field.

Pointing a way forward

The study said it aimed to create a global inventory of macroplastic pollution at local levels to inform policies designed to reduce plastic emissions and to provide a global baseline for researchers monitoring emissions.

An inventory like this can prove critical to the success of the United Nations’ Plastics Treaty, a draft resolution that negotiators are hoping to turn into an international legally binding agreement by the end of this year. Once finalised, this agreement will aim to end plastic pollution.

The fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) to develop the agreement is scheduled to take place in Busan, South Korea, from November 25 to December 1, 2024.