Single-use food and beverage packaging forms more than 84% of the plastic waste in the eco-sensitive Himalayan region, an anti-waste collective of NGOs has found.

According to the Zero Waste Himalaya Alliance, about 70% of the plastics collected from across the Himalayan belt from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh are non-recyclable and have no market value.

The GAIA-Asia Pacific and Break Free supported the meeting From Plastic, two global networks “committed to ending plastic pollution by championing real solutions”.

Estimates* suggest that approximatively 855 billion sachets were used globally in 2018. Most of these packs are produced with complex multi-layered packaging that can withstand the nature of the ingredients and preserve the products during the supply chain for their required shelf life. They are usually produced from 3-layer structures including layers of polyolefin, aluminium and often polyester, making the packs extremely difficult to recycle as the components of the laminate structure are incompatible for recycling and not easily separated.

Kolkata-based startup Pepcom India has replaced more than six million single-use plastic containers with eco-friendly, paper-based alternatives.