Single-use plastic: Single-use plastic has been among the most vocally spoken about pollutants, with many states and cities in the country having banned the use of products made out of single-use plastics. Now, in a positive development, a survey by Ipsos Public Affairs, called “Ipsos Attitudes towards Single Use Plastics Global Survey”, found that over 80% of the urban Indians preferred to use products having minimal plastic packaging. On the other hand, most of the urban Indian and global respondents were of the view that the onus of reducing, reusing as well as recycling plastic packaging rested with the retailers and the manufacturers.
Also read | Setting up environment council will help accelerate climate action: Experts
According to a statement by Ipsos India, the survey found that at least eight out of 10 urban Indians (83%) are in support of a complete ban being placed at the earliest on the use of single-use plastic. In fact, the survey studied 28 markets and among those India was at the sixth place in terms of supporting a complete ban on single-use plastic. While Cambodia, Chile and Mexico were at the first three places in the ranking with 89%, 88% and 88% people supporting such a ban, respectively, Japan stood at the bottom of the ranking as only 37% of the respondents from the country were in favour of the ban, while 54% opposed it. Overall, the survey found that across all the 28 markets, an average of 75% respondents favoured the ban.
As far as the onus of responsibility is concerned, while 86% of Indians believed that manufacturers and retailers were responsible for appropriately reducing, reusing and recycling plastic packaging, 85% of the respondents globally agreed with this view. Brazil, China, Mexico and Great Britain endorsed this view the most, with 90% of the respondents of all of these countries believing that the responsibility rested with manufacturers and retailers. In this ranking, India was at the 16th position.
In line with 83% of Urban Indians supporting complete ban on single-use plastic, the survey found that 82% of the urban Indians expressed a preference for products that had minimal plastic packaging. Of the 28 markets, China, Mexico and Colombia had 92% of their respondents expressing a similar preference, while in Chile, this figure stood at 90%.
Globally, it was also found that many respondents favoured an international treaty in order to combat pollution caused by plastic. Among urban Indians, 91% supported such a binding treaty. 88% of the respondents globally were found to be in favour of a move like this, with Mexico having the most respondents in agreement with this at 96%, followed by Peru and China at 95% each.
The survey was conducted by the Ipsos’ Online Panel system among 20,513 adults globally. Among the 28 markets, respondents from Canada, Malaysia, Israel, Turkey, the US, and South Africa were aged between 18 and 74 years, while respondents in all the other countries were 16 to 74 years old.