one The “P-polyphenylene” logo next to the trash can in Nako Village, Himaal Bang, 2010. Representative image. |Photo source: John Hill (CC BY-SA)
A non-governmental organization with anti-slavery collective found that disposable food and beverage packaging forms more than 84% of plastic waste in the ecologically sensitive Himalaya region.
According to the Zero Waste Himalayan Alliance, about 70% of the plastic collected from the Ladakhs to Arunachal Pradesh Himalayan belts are non-recyclable and have no market value.
The gravity of environmental reality revealed at the Zero Waste Himalaya Cyber Conference held in BIR in Himaal Pradesh in April, where voters in the alliance lament the failure of current policies in addressing the unique challenges of mountain ecosystems.
The alliance was initiated by an organization based in Sikkim Gangtok, the integrated mountain program in the Sikkim Gangtok, and the Dehradun in Uttarakhand.
The two organizations have led the Himalayan Cleanup (THC), one of the largest movements in plastic pollution in India’s Himalaya region. The BIR of the anti-plastics group converges for one month from May 26 to 30.
The conference was supported by Gaia-Asia Pacific and was rid of plastic, two global networks “dedicated to end plastic pollution by embracing real solutions.”
A statement issued by the Alliance on Thursday (May 8, 2025) said: “In the past six years, data have shown that the Himalayan waste crisis is fundamentally a production and system problem rather than a post-consumer waste management flaw. It also acknowledges the role of its own behavioral changes and emphasizes the need for an introduction to the system, policy level, which is the scope of waste and waste.
Participants identified key needs for producer responsibility enforcement in mountainous areas and required the paradigm to shift from centralized and extracted waste systems to solutions based on local reality and traditional wisdom.
Beyond recycling
A report released by THC said the 2018 waste collection campaign was conducted by volunteers from 200 organizations at more than 250 locations. In 2024, more than 15,000 members of 350 organizations collected plastic waste from 450 locations.
Of the nine Himalayas targeted in 2025, Sikkim generated the most garbage items. At 86 locations, a total of 53,814 garbage were reviewed (total). Next is Darjeeling, West Bengal, where 36,180 items were carried out at 37 locations.
Volunteers in Ladakh took it and reviewed 11,958 pieces of garbage at 18 locations. Nagaland and Uttarakhand followed Ladakh to take fourth and fifth places.
Practice in nine states produced 1,21,739 pieces of garbage, of which 1,06,857 were plastic, mostly single-use, and divided into six categories: food packaging, household products, personal care products, smoking materials, packaging materials, etc.
The report said 84.2% of plastic waste found to be food and beverage packaging. The packages have been reviewed to collect data on the top corporate polluters in the Himalayan belt.
“In food packaging, 71% of plastic waste is non-recyclable. THC2022 and THC2023 show that 72% and 77.4% of all plastics collected are non-recyclable, mainly multi-layer plastic and Tetrapak … none of these problematic plastics are wasted by any waste pickups and a small amount of Landforting Land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-land-littering continging continging landi site,” it said.
It added: “So it is necessary to look at solutions other than recycling lenses.”
THC2024 is located in villages, schools, tourist locations and protected areas. Body of water and rivers are the most trash among tourist attractions.
The report further stated that the coalition would call for mountain-sensitive policies, increase resource allocation, and urgently focus on the intersection of waste with climate, food security and biodiversity in the Himalayas.
This year, organizations from Bhutan and Nepal have joined the campaign for a cleaner Himalaya region.
publishing – May 11, 2025 at 08:00 AM IST
