E Retailers To Collect Plastic Waste – Economics – Free PDF Download

CONTENT

• Current affair
• Plastic Waste Management Rules
• Amendments
• Extended Producer Responsibility
• CPCB
• NGT
• UN Plastic Collective
• Recommendations

CURRENT AFFAIR

• The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has told the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that e-commerce  giants Amazon and Flipkart need to fulfill their  extended producer responsibility under the Plastic  Waste Management Rules, 2016.

Plastic Waste Management Rules,  2016- MANDATE

• According to the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 “Primary responsibility for collection of used  multi-layered plastic sachet or pouches or packaging is  of producers, importers and brand owners who introduce the products in the market”.
• They need to establish a system for collecting back the plastic waste generated due to the packaging of their

Extended Producer Responsibility  (EPR)

• EPR is a policy approach under which producers are given a significant responsibility – financial and/or  physical – for the treatment or disposal of post-  consumer products.
• Assigning such responsibility could in principle provide incentives to prevent wastes at the source,  promote product design for the environment and  support the achievement of public recycling and  materials management goals.

Extended Producer Responsibility-  OECD DEFINITION

• OECD defines Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) as an environmental policy approach in which a  producer’s responsibility for a product is extended to  the post-consumer stage of a product’s life cycle. An  EPR policy is characterized by:
• the shifting of responsibility (physically and/or economically; fully or partially) upstream toward the  producer and away from municipalities; and
• the provision of incentives to producers to take into account environmental considerations when designing  their products.

Plastic Waste Management Rules

• These rules were framed in 2016 which extended the responsibility to collect waste generated from the products to  their producers and brand owners.
• They have to approach local bodies for the formulation of plan/system for the plastic waste management within the  prescribed time frame.
• The rules have been extended to villages as well. Earlier, it was limited to municipal districts.
• Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has been mandated to formulate the guidelines for thermoset plastic (plastic difficult to  recycle).
• Earlier, there was no specific provision for such type of plastic.
• Manufacturing and use of non-recyclable multi-layered plastic are to be phased in two years, i.e. by 2018.

AMENDMENT

• The 2016 rules were amended in 2018, laying emphasis on the phasing out of Multilayered Plastic (MLP),  which are “non-recyclable, or non-energy recoverable,  or with no alternate use.”
• The amended Rules also prescribe a central registration system for the registration of the  producer/importer/brand owner.
• The amendment provided that registration should be automated and take into account ease of doing  business for producers, recyclers and manufacturers.
• A National registry has been prescribed for producers with a presence in more than two states, a state-level  registration has been prescribed for smaller  producers/brand owners operating within one or two

Central Pollution Control Board

• The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) of India is a statutory organisation under the Ministry of  Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
• It was established in 1974 under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.
• The CPCB is also entrusted with the powers and functions under the Air (Prevention and Control of  Pollution) Act, 1981.

National Green Tribunal

• It is a specialised body set up under the National Green Tribunal Act (2010) for effective and expeditious disposal of  cases relating to environmental protection and  conservation of forests and other natural resources.
• With the establishment of the NGT, India became the third country in the world to set up a specialised environmental  tribunal, only after Australia and New Zealand, and the  first developing country to do so.
• NGT is mandated to make disposal of applications or appeals finally within 6 months of filing of the same.
• The NGT has five places of sittings, New Delhi is the Principal place of sitting and Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and  Chennai are the other four.

Un-Plastic Collective

• Un-Plastic Collective (UPC) is a voluntary initiative launched by the UN-Environment Program-India,  Confederation of Indian Industry and WWF-India.
• The Collective seeks to minimise externalities of plastics on the ecological and social health of our planet.
• As a part of UPC initiative companies set time-bound, public targets to:
• Eliminate unnecessary use of plastic.
• Reuse and circulate plastics through the circular economy.
• Replace plastic with sustainable alternative or recycled
• Turn commitments to meaningful and measurable action.

Way Forward

• Plastic packaging constitutes more than 40% of the total plastic waste generated in India
• A direction is issued to the e-retailers that they should stop using plastic packaging materials and shift to  environment-friendly packaging materials.

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