On the eve of the World Environment Day, Greenpeace on Monday urged Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies to take a "hard look" at their production of plastics and commit to "100% recycling" of their waste. India is the global host to World Environment Day this year, with the theme being 'beat plastic pollution'.

Greenpeace India in a statement sent a strong message to the retailers and FMCG manufacturers, and urged them to "take responsibility for the trash they produce".

"Greenpeace is calling on companies and manufacturers to take a hard look at their production of plastics and commit to 100 percent recycling of their waste," it said in a statement.

The government, it said, needs to hold corporations accountable under Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws.

"The packaging industry is one of the major producers of plastic. Single-use plastics — such as PET bottles, caps, food wrappers and plastic bags — produced in FMCG and retail, are four of the top five pollutants in the ocean, as per the International Coastal Clean Up report released last year," the NGO said.

"With a staggering figure of 24,940 tonnes plastic waste produced in India per day, it's more than urgent to rethink our use and dependency on single-use plastics. Plastics, which are considered non-biodegradable have the potential to destroy our ecology. Single-use plastics are always going to be throwaway plastic, regardless of whether a company is able to recycle a percentage of them," Diya Deb, Campaign Director, Greenpeace India, said.

First Published:Jun 5, 2018 12:54 AM IST