Plastic Waste Management: Rules and Regulations in India
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How is Plastic Waste Managed in India?
Plastic Waste Mismanagement - Who is to blame? The irresponsible producers.
It is almost impossible to overlook the heaps of plastic waste everywhere you go. Be it the cities, towns, villages, mountains or the beaches. All of us have felt repulsed by plastic bottles and wrappers. This has almost always been a topic of discussion in every living space and on every vacation. Well, a lack of general awareness and resources is just one small part of the problem.
The fact is that these issues can easily be dealt with through mass campaigns, educational advertisement, resource deployment and management by the producers of products that use plastic in packaging. What is clearly lacking in the producers is intent! Blaming an elected candidate or the local authorities for this issue is not going to solve the problem. After all, these local authorities work with the same limitations as our general population. In fact, they are not equipped to handle these problems but our legislature has found workable solutions around managing and handling the plastic waste management problem by introducing a set of practical rules for plastic waste management called the Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016.
The most promising feature of the Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016 is the concept of ‘Extended Producers Responsibility’ which makes a producer of plastic including ‘brand owners’ responsible for environmentally sound management of a product packaged in plastic until the end of its life. Producers here include companies and industries engaged in the use of plastic for inter alia packaging or wrapping commodities. Examples of producers would include Pepsico, Coca-cola, Bisleri, Unilever, Nestle, BASF (the chemical company) and Patanjali etc.
Make a change.
Given the demographics of India and the extent of the plastic problem, it is essential that companies that are producing products that add to plastic waste play a larger role in managing plastic waste. Extending a producer’s responsibility is the only practical solution to the plastic waste management problem in India. In my opinion, it is reasonable for the Government of India to expect the producer companies to partner with public platforms and help the people of India in developing and implementing plastic waste management systems. However, it has been over 4 years since the plastic waste management rules were enforced but the producer companies and their managements have not been pro-active in the area of plastic waste management at all. It is evident that the producer companies are fully aware of their obligations under these rules but have chosen not to comply with its provisions. Unfortunately, monetary profits continue to outweighs health and environmental concerns. Profits over people! A company that is capable of selling its products all over India is very well capable of building effective plastic waste management systems but they choose not to think in this direction. While my colleague Akshita and I were discussing this issue she pointed out how effectively Coke and Pepsi collect their glass bottles back. They could use similar supply/distribution chains to get the plastic back for recycling. Where there is a will there is a way!
Also, there is room for substantial innovation in the plastic waste management area. The producers could certainly look at mentoring and funding start-ups that come up with innovative waste management solutions that can scale and become sustainable. In the light of the abovementioned, I have discussed some important obligations of the ‘producer companies’ under the Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016. The discussion below also indicates the possible consequences of non-compliance on the ‘director’ of a defaulting producer company.
Responsibility of Waste Generators
Rule 8 also requires waste generators (all nationals and legal entities in India) to take steps to minimize generation of plastic waste and segregate plastic waste at source in accordance with the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2000. Given the concept of ‘extended producers responsibility’, it is expected that the producers will be proactive and help create necessary awareness amongst the waste generators so as to successfully fulfil their responsibility as producers. The producers could create awareness through social media campaigns, advertisement and funding innovative start-ups working in this area.
Enforcement Authorities
The authorities responsible for enforcement of the provisions of the Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016 are the State Pollution Control Board, Pollution Control Committee (Union Territory ) and the Secretary-in-charge of Urban Development of the State or a Union Territory. The authorities are required to take the assistance of the District Magistrate or the Deputy Commissioner within the territorial limits of the jurisdiction of the concerned district in the enforcement of the provisions of these rules.
• Notice to Directors and Promoters of Plastic Producing Companies
• Application to the Central Pollution Control Board of India seeking information relating to the collection plans of Pepsi and Coke
• Response from the Central Pollution Control Board
• First Appeal against response of the Central Pollution Control Board
• Response to First Appeal by the Central Pollution Control Board
• Second Appeal against response of the Central Pollution Control Board
• Work in Progress: Cross-Border Litigation against non compliance plastic producing brand owners (some of these are NASDAQ listed entities)