Management of plastic waste is becoming a growing nuisance for policy makers and town planners and emerging as a formidable challenge to address for scientific community. The government of India has notified the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, which prohibited the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of single-use plastics (SUPs), intended to phase out the single-use Plastic Carry Bags of thickness less than 120 microns by December 2022. The sudden shift in policy by Government of India (GOI) has opened new vistas for the promotion of the development of biodegradable plastic products to replace the single use plastics. These biodegradable products are need of the hour and thus require credible certification of biodegradability. The biodegradability testing methods which are in vogue are time-consuming. Hence, there is a need to develop innovative and rapid testing methods at accelerated pace. These methods should be able to demonstrate biodegradability as per national and international standards. This rapid test should be able to establish biodegradability of plastic in a short time frame using standard test parameters. The developed test after gaining approval may become applicable and able to provide interim approval /provisional certification of biodegradability to plastic substances.
Considering the prospects of biotechnological tools, this call for proposal is intended to support the short duration (3-6 Months) project proposals specific to develop the anaerobic/aerobic “Rapid Biodegradability Test” with the potential of scalability and immediate testing application.
Details can be accessed on https://dbtindia.gov.in/whats-new/call-for-proposals
Last date: 5th December, 2022