Single-use food packaging 84% of Himalayan plastic garbage

• The Zero Waste Himalaya Alliance, an anti-waste collective, has found that over 70% of plastics collected from the Himalayan belt from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh are non-recyclable and have no market value.

• The alliance, initiated by Zero Waste Himalaya and the Integrated Mountain Initiative, has been spearheading The Himalayan Cleanup (THC), a major movement against plastic pollution in the Indian Himalayan region since 2018.

• The alliance’s report indicates that the Himalayan waste crisis is a production and systems issue rather than a post-consumer waste management flaw.

• In 2024, over 15,000 members of 350 organisations collected plastic waste from 450 locations, with Sikkim generating the most trash items (44% of total) across 86 sites.

• The report found that 84.2% of the plastic waste was found to be food and beverage packaging, with 71% of the plastic waste being non-recyclable.