The buyback scheme for milk poly packs and packaged water bottles will be delayed beyond the Wednesday deadline set by the state government as manufacturers have not submitted their buyback schemes for approval.
The state environment department will now issue notices to these stakeholders asking them to operationalise the mechanism in a month.
"We will issue notices to the packaged water producers and milk manufacturers asking them to ensure compliance in a month, failing which action will be taken against them, which may include closure of these units," said Anil Diggikar, Principal Secretary, Environment. He added that according to the notification issued on April 11, the scheme was to be operationalised in three months.
Environment department officials said these stakeholders had to submit their schemes for approval of the state government's expert committee.
The state's ban on disposable, single-use plastic and plastic products has introduced a buyback scheme for milk poly packs and packaged drinking water bottles.
Here, consumers will have to pay a minimum of 50 paise per milk poly pack and for bottles of packaged drinking water, consumers will have to pay refundable buyback price of Rs 1 and Rs 2 for a 1 liter and 500 ml bottle respectively. This money will be refunded after they return the used bag to retailers for recycling.
Maharashtra has around 22 packaged water manufacturers and the department is sourcing details of the government-owned, private and co-operative milk federations.
The state is considering the barcoding-based model to ease the buyback scheme and ensure portability for consumers, who will be able to purchase the product from one retailer but surrender the used bottle or milk poly pack to another shop and claim a refund.
The scheme will be a litmus test for the buyback mechanism for retail level packaging that has been allowed under the ban, albeit subject to riders. The government has also introduced the extended producers responsibility (EPR) for commodities like tetra packs and multi-layer packaging.
The state government has banned the usage, purchase, sale, distribution, and storage of PET and PETE bottles with a holding capacity less than 200 ml.
It is estimated that around 30 lakh 250 ML bottles are discarded daily and the number of 500 ml bottles used daily is 25 lakh. The total number of PET and PETE bottles generated daily is 1.25 crore.
Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) estimates suggest that around 3 to 5 per cent of municipal waste comprises of plastic. Mumbai generates around 8,000 metric ton solid waste daily, while the figure for all the 262 urban local bodies in the state is around 24,000 metric tons.
NOTICE
- The state environment department will now issue notices to these stakeholders asking them to operationalise the mechanism in a month
- Notices will be sent to the packaged water producers and milk manufacturers asking them to ensure compliance in a month, failing which action will be taken against them
