About Kashmir’s single use plastic waste, we need a PESE act on the pattern of NDPS actto realize sustainable plastic free Kashmir.
Dr. Ashraf Zainabi
The Government of Jammu and Kashmir recently approved a ₹361-crore Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) project at Achan with a proposed capacity of 800 tonnes per day (TDP). The objective is commendable. No modern society can function without scientific waste management, and Kashmir urgently needs better systems for handling the mountains of garbage generated every day.
Yet the announcement also presents an opportunity to ask a more important question.Are we investing hundreds of crores to manage the consequences of plastic pollution, when we should instead be investing to prevent plastic pollution itself?Waste management is necessary. Waste prevention is transformative.
Every landfill, every waste-processing plant, and every recycling facility begins with the assumption rather conviction that plastic will continue entering the Valley indefinitely. It accepts the problem and attempts to manage it. But what if Kashmir became the first Himalayan region to stop the problem at its source?
Imagine redirecting the same policy ambition behind the Achan project towards a much larger environmental mission. Imagine investing ₹361 crore not merely in processing waste but in eliminating much of it before it is ever created.
The proposal is simple.Instead of treating plastic as an unavoidable reality, Kashmir should progressively eliminate it through legislation, industrial policy and phased implementation.The Valley needs a Plastic Elimination and Safe Environment Act (PESE Act).
Just as India enacted the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act to demonstrate that narcotic drugs are not merely a policing issue but a national priority, Kashmir now needs legislation that treats plastic pollution with similar seriousness. Plastic may not intoxicate people, but it slowly intoxicates rivers, lakes, forests, farmland, livestock and ultimately the food chain itself.
The comparison is not about imposing identical punishments. It is about assigning equal administrative urgency. Environmental destruction should never remain a low-priority civic offence. It should become a matter of public policy, public health and intergenerational responsibility.
The proposed PESE Act should prohibit the manufacture, storage, transport, distribution and sale of specified single-use plastics through a carefully planned transition. More importantly, it should gradually prohibit products entering Kashmir in unnecessary plastic packaging wherever practical alternatives exist, especially the potato chips packets, and other fried and non-fried items packed in plastics that includes biscuits. I remember the crack-jack and other biscuitsof 1990s that weretasty and had paper based packing. Even toffees were packed in paper based covers. Why not today?
This is where the major focus of the proposed ₹361 crore project should go to counter plastic packaging industry.By doing so, a part of ₹361 crore proposed project becomes an investment rather than an expenditure.Instead of spending the entire amount on managing the waste after it is generated, Kashmir could establish India’s first large-scale biodegradable packaging industry dedicated to serving the Valley’s economy.A Green Packaging Mission (GPM) could emerge as Kashmir’s next major industrial sector.
Every chips packet wrapped in biodegradable packaging material instead of plastic is one less piece of waste reaching Dal Lake. Every paper-based or fabric based shopping bag replacing plastic is one less item blocking drains during rainfall. Every locally manufactured eco-friendly package creates employment while reducing pollution. Let every village/area of 300 households have its local manufacturing, distribution, and selling units of GPM for everything that needs packaging. Let the branded chips, biscuit, and other fried item companies open their manufacturing units in Kashmir but use locally produced packaging material if they want the Kashmir as their market. If they resist or refuse, bane them and save Kashmir from pollution and obesity.
“The ₹361 crore sanctioned for the Achan waste plant demonstrates strong political will. If this same political commitment were redirected toward an ambitious Plastic Elimination and Safe Environment (PESE) Act, it could transition the region from merely managing pollution to preventing it entirely—creating a sustainable eco-model featuring a biodegradable packaging industry, green jobs, and healthier ecosystems.”
Unlike a landfill, GPM will produce jobs and wealth.Unlike waste treatment, it willcontrol pollution at its source.Critics will immediately argue that plastic cannot disappear overnight.They are correct.That is precisely why implementation must be phased rather than abrupt.
During the first year, selected locations such as Pahalgam, Gulmarg, Sonamarg, Lal Chowk, Sopore, Baramulla and Chadoora could become Plastic-Free Zones. Businesses would receive transition assistance. Manufacturers supplying these markets would begin switching to biodegradable packaging.
During the second year, the programme could expand to every major town. Government offices, schools, hospitals, universities, hotels and tourist establishments would procure only approved biodegradable packaging wherever feasible.
By the third year, the entire Valley could move towards becoming India’s first genuinely plastic-light Himalayan region.Such a transition would not simply benefit the environment.It would create an entirely new manufacturing ecosystem.Thousands of skilled and semi-skilled jobs.Research opportunities for universities.Business opportunities for entrepreneurs.Export potential to other states.A new green identity for Kashmir.
Tourists travel to Kashmir because of its mountains, lakes, gardens and rivers. They do not come to photograph plastic wrappers floating beside shikaras or bottles trapped among willow trees. Every year we spend crores promoting tourism, while plastic quietly damages the very landscape on which tourism depends.
The economics are equally compelling.Waste-processing facilities require continuous maintenance, imported machinery, trained operators, spare parts, electricity and recurring operational expenditure. As waste increases, infrastructure must also expand. The financial burden never truly ends.
By contrast, reducing plastic entering the Valley reduces future collection costs, transport costs, landfill requirements and environmental restoration expenses. Prevention is almost always cheaper than perpetual cleanup.
This is not an argument against scientific waste management. Even a plastic-free Kashmir will continue generating organic waste, construction debris and recyclable materials. Modern waste infrastructure will always remain necessary. But it should become the second line of defence, not the first.
The first line of defence should be preventing unnecessary plastic from entering the Valley. History consistently rewards societies that invest in prevention rather than consequences. Vaccination prevents disease before hospitals become overcrowded. Road-safety laws prevent accidents before emergency rooms fill up. Clean drinking water prevents epidemics before medicines become necessary.
Environmental policy should embrace the same philosophy.The cleanest landfill is the one that never receives the waste.The cleanest river is the one that never receives plastic.The cleanest lake is the one where wrappers never arrive.
Kashmir has often aspired to become a model in tourism, education and environmental stewardship. Here lies an opportunity to become a model for the entire country. Instead of becoming known for building one of India’s largest waste-processing facilities, let Kashmir become known for needing less waste processing because it had the courage to eliminate plastic at its source.
The ₹361 crore sanctioned for Achan reflects political will. That same political will, combined with an ambitious Plastic Elimination and Safe Environment (PESE) Act, could build something far more enduring than another waste plant. It could create a biodegradable packaging industry, thousands of green jobs, cleaner lakes, healthier ecosystems and a new development model rooted not in managing pollution, but in preventing it.
(The author is a teacher and a researcher based in Gowhar Pora Chadoora of Central Kashmir’s Budgam district. The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”)
