A little more than half the plastic waste generated in Bengal every year is segregated and used for processing, a senior official of the state pollution control board (PCB) said on Monday.

Plastic waste going into landfill, vacant plots and water bodies is a major cause of environmental degradation worldwide. Plastic items that are not segregated or have no recyclable value litter roads or go into landfills, water bodies or the sea.

Single-use plastic items, which can be broadly defined as the ones with less than 120 micron thickness, have hardly any value in the recycling industry. Most of them remain as waste in the natural environment, said experts.

Single-use plastic items, though banned, are used everywhere in Calcutta and in many parts of the state. Groceries and pharmacies routinely hand single-use plastic bags to customers along with their purchases.

“Our state produces 3,13,250 tonnes of plastic waste every year, out of which about 1,87,188 tonnes are segregated and processed,” Kalyan Rudra, the chairperson of the state PCB, said on the sidelines of a conclave that discussed sustainable growth opportunities for the plastic and chemical sectors in the state.

“The plastic items that are thrown away disintegrate into microplastics. We consume microplastics from the air and water,” Rudra said in his speech at the conclave, organised by the Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Atin Biswas, programme director of municipal solid waste at the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi, echoed Rudra.

“The single-use plastic items are not recycled. They remain in the environment and break down into microplastics and nanoplastics over the years,” Biswas, who did not attend the conclave, told Metro.

Microplastic particles (MP) “have been detected in air, water, soil, food and beverages, indicating that exposure of humans to these particles is ubiquitous,” the World Health Organisation had said in a 2022 publication.

“Ingestion of MP has been reported in a variety of foods and beverages, including fish and seafood products, salt, sugar, honey, rice, milk and drinking-water.”

Biswas said plastic items contain carcinogenic particles and nanoplastics have been found to have entered the human brain and bloodstream.

All the speakers at the conclave said plastic was one of the greatest innovations of the modern world but the way it has been used has turned it into a menace.

Manufacturers of plastic products and experts said a huge volume of plastic waste generated every day comes from packaged goods. The goods delivered by e-commerce companies generate a huge volume of such waste, they said.

Biswas said plastic products designed for recycling such as PET bottles are picked up by ragpickers, who hand them to aggregators. The aggregators send the products to recycling units.

The problem is with the plastic items that are meant for one-time use. “There is little interest in collecting them because they have no value in the recycling industry,” he said.

The role of municipal corporations and municipalities is also important in curbing plastic pollution, said Biswas. If plastic is mixed with food waste, its recycling potential reduces as moisture gets mixed with the plastic.

Bengal environment minister Ghulam Rabbani said the PCB would help the plastic industry follow sustainable manufacturing practices.