A recent study estimates that the world has produced about 8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastics between 1950 and 2015 — 80 per cent of this is plastic waste. A meagre 9 per cent of this waste has been recycled. As much as 79 per cent of the plastic manufactured in the world ends up in landfills or in the environment — in our oceans and waterbodies. This comprehensive background paper on plastic waste management in India is our first attempt to help us understand the status of this problem, and identify the gaps on what needs to be first learnt, and then done.