Maharashtra government realises folly, walks back on plastic buyback

In a major twist in the buyback scheme for used drinking water bottles, the state government will allow packaged water manufacturers to purchase bottles from consumers on their weight rather than on per-piece basis. The state environment department and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) officials said this would align the deposit and buyback system with the present recycling system.

The state government's ban on disposable, single-use plastic and plastic products saw the introduction of a buyback and refund scheme for milk polypacks and packaged drinking water bottles. Consumers were to pay a refundable minimum of 50 paise per polypack and a similar buyback price of Re 1 and Rs 2 for 1-litre and 500-ml water bottles respectively above the market price. This would be refunded after return of the used polypack or bottle to retailers for recycling.

But the scheme had shortcomings. It was tough to implement portability by allowing a consumer to return a used bottle to a different retailer for a refund. Moreover, a 500 ml bottle costing 60 paise to produce would have a buyback price of Rs 2, leading to fears of manipulation by entities which could generate lookalikes of prominent brands and claim refunds, officials said.

A senior MPCB official told DNA they would allow the buyback mechanism on per-kg basis. "This will be consistent with the market and the raddi system where the recycling value of bottles of different sizes is on per-kg basis rather than per-piece basis. People are more comfortable with it," he said.

A revised plastic ban notification on June 30 allowed PET and PETE bottle manufacturers to decide the deposit and buyback price in addition to the previous Re 1 and Rs 2.

The official said packaged water manufacturers were told to boost their collection and recycling mechanisms. "They claim around 80 per cent of the PET bottles produced are collected. Considering around 500 crore such bottles are manufactured annually, it means around 100 crore bottles are littered or make their way to landfills. We have asked them to deploy adequate financial and managerial resources for the scheme," he added.

Another MPCB official said manufacturers had started printing per-kg buyback price on PET bottles. The bottles could be returned to retailers for a refund or given to scrap dealers.

An environment department official claimed the new mechanism would incentivise consumers. "The per piece buyback scheme would have met with poor response," he added.

Maharashtra has around 22 packaged water manufacturers. Though the scheme was to be operationalised by July 11, manufacturers did not submit their plans for approval, leading the state government to issue notices seeking compliances.