Making India’s polluters pay (Plastic manufacturers must step up their game)

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Making India’s polluters pay (Plastic manufacturers must step up their game)

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• Plastic Waste Management Rules (PWM) 2016: These rules had the "EPR - Extended Producer Responsibility“ concept, which is the "polluter-pays" principle.
• Sellers' responsbility: All sellers of plastic packaging were to have a system for waste collection. Only after 2 yrs have companies started taking baby steps, too small to have a big impact.
• Scale of the problem: India produces 7-9 million tonnes of plastic waste each year. Only 45 firms have given their EPR plans so far to CPCB, of the several thousands.
• A strong hand: The CPCB has now started imposing EPR waste-recovery targets, and started listing PROs (Producer Responsibility Organisations). What are PROs? These are firms to which makers can outsource their job.
• Basic idea of EPR: It is central to waste management, and given that mostly our plastic-recycling ecosystem is informal (waste pickers and kabadiwallahs), it is a miracle that 80% of our PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) is recycled. But half of the 7-9 m tonnes is never picked up.
• MLP left untouched: The multilayered packaging cannot be recycled, and is useless for waste pickers. This is where EPR is needed, and companies can incentivise MLP recycling too.
• Remove ambiguities: The PWM rules made a reference to EPR, asking "manufacturers, importers and brand owners" of plastic packaging to make a system to recover their waste. But it was ambiguous, as who is responsible wasn't clear - producer of plastic film, company who made packaging, or brand owner who sold it?
• Other problems: State-level SPCB registration was mandated for companies, making it a multi-state headache for national firms. EPR may become unviable that way. An amendment in 2018 clarified this. Then, PROs were recognised.
• Targets for waste recovery: The CPCB set this from 2018, and each company must recover 20% of MLP it produces within one year, and 100% within three years. Enforcement will be the key (a big question).
• MLP problem: It's used everywhere - tetrapacks, wafer bags, shampoo sachets. It's approx. 0.6 m t annually. It cannot be recycled and is irreplaceable due to multiple layers of paper, plastic and aluminium. (keeps things fresh for months)
• CPCB recommends: It says that MLP waste can be put in cement kilns, or waste-to-energy plants. But such plants are few, and only in Delhi today. Cement plants avoid MLP as fuel, due to cost of segregation and transport.
• Ready for entrepreneurship: It is clear that the field is ready for new thoughts and action.
• Summary : The Extended Producer Responsibility system in plastics recycling needs to be scaled up urgently, and MLPs need to be tackled technologically.

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