The launch comes amid India’s decision to ban the usage of single-use plastic by 2022
DRDO headquarters in New Delhi. (Credit: Imahesh3847/Wikimedia Commons)
India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has launched environmentally friendly packaging products manufactured by using natural and plant-based food-grade materials that are biodegradable.
The Ministry of Defence agency had joined forces with Acharya Nagarjuna University and Ecolastic for making biodegradable packaging products with an objective to reduce single-use plastic.
DRDO advanced systems laboratory director Ram Manohar Babu has been quoted by ANI, as saying: “Government of India has decided to completely eliminate the usage of single-use plastic in the country by 2022 and these biodegradable packing bags help us make a forward step in that direction.”
Manohar Babu said that only 1% of the nearly five trillion single-use plastic bags that are used around the world annually are being recycled. He further added that plastic takes up to 1,000 years to decompose.
According to DRDO and Ecolastic, the environmentally friendly packaging bags launched by them come in water-soluble as well as water-resistant forms. The bags can be biologically degraded in three months and are said to have no adverse impact on the environment.
The organisations said that the packaging bags are sustainable, cost-effective, and an ocean-safe alternative to single-use plastics, when compared to traditional polyethylene bags that take years to degrade.
Ecolastic technical director Purushottam has been quoted by ANI as saying: “We can’t remove plastic completely from our life but we can find alternative solutions. The packaging bags launched today are the most sustainable alternative to single-use plastic.”
Purushottam said that the organisations are willing to provide material to industries that are interesting in producing biodegradable packaging products and will further help in distributing them.