As the Lok Sabha elections draw to a close, the country is faced with a reckoning: not about who the next prime minister will be but about the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) hoardings political candidates used for their electioneering. Political parties aren’t the only offenders here but their wanton use of this material presents a particularly difficult problem.
According to one source, PVC-based physical advertisements dominate the displays market. PVC is non-biodegradable and persists in the environment for decades on end. It is also soluble in fats and can accumulate in the food chain. In the absence of proper waste management, PVC and other plastics languish in landfills, leaching off into the ground beneath. If they’re set on fire, they release harmful vapours and gases.
The Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules of 2018 don’t explicitly mention PVC even though Indians consume a little over 2 kg of the material per capita. According to the general rules, waste generators have to endeavour to produce less waste and segregate plastics according to the Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016. They also have to prevent littering and ensure proper relocation – either to the municipalities and panchayats or to registered waste-pickers, waste collection agencies and/or registered recyclers. In addition to this, waste generators have to pay a polluter’s fee.
Also read: The Dawn of the Age of Plastics
According to the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB’s) 2017 annual report on the implementation of plastic waste management rules, only 13 of 35 state pollution control boards and pollution control committees (for the union territories) submitted their respective reports. Of those 13, none were able to collect the requisite information from all local bodies citing ‘unknown reasons’.
On March 1, 2019, the National Green Tribunal ordered representatives of the Election Commission, the Union environment ministry and the CPCB to hold a joint meeting and discuss the issue of PVC hoardings in the elections. The environment ministry had issued a similar notice to all states to reduce the use of PVC hoardings. However, the commission didn’t hold such a meeting.
PVC hoardings are popular because they are cheap. They can be procured for as little as Rs 5 per sq. feet. Because they are cheap, they are overused – not just to print advertisements that loom over highways but even to announce a local figure’s birthday – to the point of becoming a staple item in the culture of ‘public service’. It is now imperative that we remake this culture to end such deleterious practices and adopt more future-friendly methods. One of the easiest ways out is to recycle PVC banners; there are organisations that already provide this service. Another is to ban the use of PVC hoardings as Bengaluru has done.
Most of all, the elections should be an opportunity to demand more of our political parties, including that they clean up after themselves. Party members who erected the hoardings should take them down before the results are declared, and the Election Commission must also step up to ensure this is so.
Medha Pande has been published in Down to Earth, Hektoen International, The Quint, Hindustan Times and Coldnoon.