25% of municipal waste. The amount of plastic materials in Europe
was 30 MT during 2000 and it will reach 35 MT by 2010 [8]. In USA
the amount of plastic waste was 24.8 MT in 2000 and 29.7 MT in
2006. The amount of plastic consumed as a percentage of total
waste has increased from less than 1% in 1960 to 11.7% in 2006
(Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report 2000 and 2006). In
Japan, 15 MT of plastics are produced annually and 10 MT of
plastics are discarded [9]. Similarly in India the amount of plastic
waste during 2000/2001 was 2.38 MT and is estimated to rise to
more than 8 MT by 2010 and 20 MT by 2030 [3].
Plastics have become a major threat due to their nonbiodegradability
and high visibility in the waste stream. Littering
also results in secondary problems such as clogging of drains and
animal health problems. Their presence in the waste stream poses
a serious problem when there is lack of efficient end of life
management of plastic waste. Some countries have too much of
plastic rubbish for them to dispose off that, due to the high cost of
the disposal of the plastic rubbish, many resort to indiscriminate
dumping of plastics. Plastic waste has attracted widespread
attention in India, particularly in the last five years, due to the
widespread littering of plastics on the landscape of India. The
environmental issues due to plastic waste arise predominantly due
to the throwaway culture that plastics propagate, and also the lack
of an efficient waste management system