Plastic industry poised to contribute to Centre's initiatives: AIPMA

Says the industry has devised plans to promote its use to help Centre achieve its various goals

The plastic industry is poised to make significant contribution to various initiatives of the Union government and is focusing on developing skills and entrepreneurship, said senior officials of the All India Plastics Manufacturer's Association (AIPMA), the apex body and the largest industry association of the plastic industry in India.

AIPMA said in a statement that most of the government initiatives such as 'Swachcha Bharat', 'More Crop per Drop of Water', 'Housing for All', developing 'Smart Cities', cannot be implemented without using plastics and the industry has devised plans to promote its use to help Centre achieve its various goals.

Regarding the general perception about plastics, Rituraj Gupta, president, AIPMA said, "We need to understand that littering is a man-made problem. The fact is plastic is a material that can be recycled for any number of times with varying end-uses and manufacturing of any product through it consumes less power. This way, plastic is more environment-friendly."

Maintaining that the negative mindset towards the use of plastic is a big deterrent and needs to be changed, Gupta stated that the per capita consumption of plastic is only 9.7 kg per person in India while the global average is 27 kg. South Korea has the highest per capita plastic consumption of 100 kg per person.

To promote plastic manufacturing, AIPMA is developing plastic parks across the country.

Arvind Mehta,chairman, AIPMA governing council says, "AIPMA plans similar plastic parks in five states namely, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat."

The plastic park in Dahej in Gujarat's Bharuch district will commence production in 2016, Mehta said.