The Election Commission of India (EC) had issued an advisory asking political parties to refrain from using single-use plastic materials on election campaigns and option for environment-friendly options.

The EC had suggested that all political parties avoid PVC in their campaign material, considering “the long-term deleterious impact of materials such as plastics, polythene, etc. on the life-giving and life-sustaining environment.”

Eventually in March, the Kerala High Court banned the use of flex and non-biodegradable materials during polls.

Following this, Kerala went to polls in the third phase of elections on April 23 and managed to conduct plastic-free or “green elections” for the first time ever.

BCCL

Graffiti and paper posters took centrestage in election campaigning as parties shunned plastic and decided to go green.

As the mother of all elections is underway, hoardings with faces of politicians have plagued the cities all across the country. And the problem is only slated to get worse with heated campaigning taking over for the next four phases.

In India, 90 per cent of advertising materials are printed on PVC and close to 216,000 tonnes of flex banners are printed on the polymer annually, per ICRA, a Moody’s company.

BCCL

What makes the situation worse is that less than 1 per cent of PVC is recycled and rest of it ends up in landfills, releasing toxic chemicals into the soil.

India produces 26,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day and the problem amplifies during elections. States like Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Telangana have also put a ban on single-use plastic, but did not follow suit for elections.

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