Vamsi Shankar Kapilavai, Programme Lead, Environment and Climate Action

Report prepared by: Vamsi Sankar Kapilavai (Programme Lead, Environment & Climate Action, CAG)

Acknowledgements: The author acknowledges S. Saroja for her critical review of the report and the communications team for editing the report.

Plastic, Policies and People brings grassroots voices into the global conversation on plastic pollution. This report captures insights from waste workers, youth, RWAs, and MSMEs across four cities, highlighting their expectations, concerns, and priorities for the Global Plastics Treaty. It underscores the need for an inclusive, just, and accountable treaty that reflects the lived realities of those most impacted. Through vivid documentation and powerful narratives, the report offers a bottom-up perspective on what a truly transformative plastics treaty must look like.

CAG's 2021 Brand Audit sought to understand which companies create the maximum plastic waste. Interestingly, unbranded plastic contributed to a quarter of the plastic waste audited followed by well-known brands like Unilever, Aavin, and Britannia. Over 90% of the plastic waste produced by companies such as Unilever, Nestle, and Mondelez for example, are made of non-recyclable plastics - an indication of brands disinterest in making their products truly sustainable.

A study that analysed water samples from around the Kodungaiyur dumpyard seeking to answer the question of how much microplastics have leached into the neighbourhood water sources.