New Delhi, Dec. 7 -- There could not have been a more alarming sight than stark images of tens of thousands of discarded plastic bottles, wrappers, cups and bags of all shapes and sizes, cluttering the world's beaches, highways, rail lines, public spaces, open fields, lakes and rivers. The omnipresent eyesore is not only an affront to Mother Earth, reflecting unbridled human profligacy, but is also probably the gravest threat to its eco-system, so painstakingly crafted over eons.
The sheer volume of waste boggles the imagination. A million bottles flew off the shelves every minute in 2018, adding up to a staggering sale of 480 billion bottles worldwide, over the whole year, just double the numbers bought in 2009, according to Euromonitor I...