Petrochemicals, Plastics, and Politics
September 30 – October 3, 2023
Big money is set to fuel the making of more plastics in India. The production of phenolics in India began in 1947 and the first thermoplastics (polystyrene) were made in 1957 (PlastIndia, 2019). In 2018-19, the production of plastics in India was 170 lakh tons (PlastIndia, 2019). According to the same report, the industry size was INR 5.1 lakh crore with around 4,000 converting units in operation in 2018-19.
The industry has shown consistent growth of 3.4% a year and is predicted to maintain an annual growth rate of 3.4% until 2028. Interestingly, since 1990, India’s GDP growth rate has shown a consistent dependence on plastic consumption. As our plastics consumption fell in the last decade, so did the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate. While the nature of this correlation is worth a closer look, the fact itself is used by the government and the plastics industry to link plastics consumption with India’s progress and development. While plastics consumption in 2011 grew only by 2.5% in the UK and 10% in China, India showed a growth rate of 16%.
Turning off the tap in plastics would necessarily entail ending the production of raw materials used to produce these. The polymer industry is characterized by a few oligarchs who control not only the polymer industry but also the downstream production of plastics and how they are disposed of. This control encompasses the narrative in the media and also policies. It is imperative therefore that this segment of the polymer industry be held accountable for the implications of their businesses.
Currently, the FMCG MNCs refuse to publicly share the number of sachets that they sell in any of their markets/territories. At the same time, most of them have announced targets for reducing their use of plastic in packaging and recycling certain quantities of this sold plastic.
The harmful impacts of plastic use and the pollution caused in its disposal phase are well documented. What needs specific attention though is the impacts of plastic production on people, the environment, and the climate.
About the Workshop
CFA and Sambhaavnaa Institute offer this workshop to help participants understand the relationship between fossil fuels and plastics. It also aims to help the participant understand what it takes to make plastics and the impact that it has on both the environment and humans in each stage of its lifespan: from oil exploration, transportation of crude oil, refining, manufacturing of petrochemicals (which are the raw materials for plastics), and the production of plastics.
The workshop will help participants explore these issues from the perspective of social and environmental justice. Evidence and data offered in this workshop will help build the participant’s knowledge on the themes covered. Participants skills necessary for participants to engage on this issue once they return will be built.
Learning Goals
- Develop a critical perspective of the plastics lifespan including the state-industry nexus
- Understand the relationship between fossil fuels and plastics
- Critically analyze how systems and policies sideline the environmental and social impacts of the petrochemical and plastics industry in favor of private profit-driven approaches.
- Understanding of the impacts along the plastic’s lifespan
Methodology
The program shall use a variety of methodologies including interactive lectures and discussions facilitated by subject experts, live experience sharing by activists, film screenings and collective reflection, readings and presentations, and group and individual exercises, amongst others, to enable participants to reflect on their current understanding and help deepen the same.
Themes that will be covered
- Oil and Gas Exploration
- Extraction, Imports, Consumption, Refining, Uses
- Policy regime governing oil and gas
- Pricing, taxes, subsidies
- Polymer Industry
- Plastics life cycle: Petrochemicals to plastics, global trends
- Polymer industry in India
- Who is financing polymers?
- Impact of polymer production on communities and workers
- Plastics Industry
- Plastics industry: structure, products, volumes
- Chemicals in plastics: science, health, and environmental impacts
- Single-use plastics: sachets, FMCGs, policy
- Plastic waste management
- Post-consumption management of plastics
- Overview of false solutions
- Waste to Energy: science, industry in India, impacts
- Overarching issues
- Global policy regime
- Just Transition in the petrochemicals and plastics industry
Who is the workshop for
This is a call to all teachers, students, activists, community mobilizers, and concerned citizens, who are deeply concerned about this state of affairs today. We invite young minds to come together and use this opportunity to sharpen their understanding and capacities to engage with their surroundings.
Language: The primary medium of communication will be in English
Resources Persons
Om Prakash and Swathi Seshadri who lead the oil and gas work in CFA will anchor the workshop. Resource persons will include members of CFA’s oil and gas team and some thematic experts.
About Centre for Financial Accountability: CFA seeks to critically analyse, document and challenge the current developmental impact of financial institutions in India and South Asia. It also supports communities, movements and people in India to hold financial institutions to account for any negative impacts of their operations and to support and give voice to alternative perspectives on development and the role and responsibility of finance in India.
Workshop anchors:
Swathi Seshadri: Swathi Seshadri is the Director (Programs) and Team Lead, Oil and Gas at CFA. Her specific areas of work are on the lifespan of plastic from oil and gas exploration and extraction, petrochemical production, plastics production and consumption, and waste to energy projects.
Om Prakash Singh: Om Prakash is an Advisor at the Centre for Financial Accountability. His interests are in topics related to the climate crisis and environmental protection.
Members of CFA’s oil and gas team
Chythenyen: Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran is a research associate in the oil and gas team of CFA with a master’s degree in International Relations. He works on issues of post-consumption management of plastics with a specific focus on waste-to-energy projects.
Fouziya Tehzeeb: Fouziya is a Program Associate in the Oil and Gas team at the Centre for Financial Accountability. Her focus area is the study of petrochemical production, politics and its impacts.
Subject Experts
Siddharth Ghanshyam Singh: Siddharth is working in the capacity of Programme Manager at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), an engineer by practice, he has done his Masters in Green Technology from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. Siddharth has close to a decade of experience in the solid waste management sector. He was the co-founder of a social enterprise working in the domain of organic waste management in Mumbai prior to joining CSE. At CSE, Siddharth works with the Solid Waste Management and Circular Economy team with a specific focus on plastic pollution. Siddharth has been a part of several committee’s in various Ministries at the Government of India and multiple State Governments to help them develop policies around waste management and circularity.
Shibu Nair: has been active in movements and campaigns related to the environment and toxics since 1991. He entered the realm of environmental activism by organising environmental education programs for schools in Kerala. He is one of the pioneers of the zero waste movement in India and led the zero waste campaigns and programs for Thanal – one of the oldest environmental organisations in South India. His expertise is in organics management, designing and developing zero-waste systems at the community level, and strategizing zero waste programs and campaigns. He is currently Adviser to Organics and Climate campaigns in GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives).
Dates and Venue: September 30 – October 3, 2023. Sambhaavnaa Institute, VPO – Kandbari, Tehsil – Palampur, District – Kangra, PIN 176061, Himachal Pradesh; How to reach: Please visit: Getting here
Participant Contribution
We hope that participants would contribute an amount of Rs. 5,000/- towards workshop expenses, inclusive of all on-site workshop costs: boarding, lodging, and all the materials used in the workshop.
Do not let money be an impediment to your application. Need-based fee waivers are available. We have a limited number of scholarships so please apply for a fee waiver if you really need it. Do remember that there may be others who need it more than you. The fee waiver will be offered to people from marginalized groups and non-funded social, political, or student movements.
To register please fill this form