Page 52 - Plastics News April 2022

IN THE NEWS

Environment Ministry Allows Imported Pet Bottles For Processing

fter ban- that firms who had applied for permis- Canada, Germany, citing a shortage of
Aning the sion could import PET Flakes/Bottles plastic waste in India. “More than 465
import of up to 50% of their production capac- crore discarded PET bottles of mineral
plastic waste ity. Polyethylene Terephthalate bot- water, cold drink, juice consumed in
in 2019, the tles are a category of plastic of which these countries could be imported into
Environment nearly 90% of the domestic supply is our country (1 bottle – 20gms),” the
Ministry has already recycled. Last week, the Direc- PDUSM said in a statement. According
permitted torate General of Foreign Trade, a Un- to a senior official in the Union Environ-
PET Bot- ion Commerce Ministry held a con- ment Ministry, there was no blanket lift-
tles, as plastic sultative meeting of representatives ing of the import ban. “The import was
waste, to be from the Union Environment Minis- permitted only for the PET bottles to be
imported for try and environmentalist organisation used for Recycled Polyester Staple Fibre
processing. The decision to rollback the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Smriti and yarn. Currently the domestic capac-
ban was taken last year after representa- Manch (PDUSM), companies that ity is limited and without imports these
tions by several industries in the business had requested permission to import companies will suffer. So we have made a
of processing waste said there was too little plastic waste and the Plastic Export balanced decision, taking all stakehold-
waste available for them in India and this Promotional Council. In 2021, seven ers on board.” Earlier a campaign by the
was causing them financial losses. An ex- Indian companies have applied to im- PDUSM against the import of plastic
pert committee of the Environment Min- port 93,000 tonnes of plastic bottles waste had played a role in the Cen-
istry, last December, had recommended waste from countries such as America, tre’s decision to impose a ban in 2019.

Drive Against Banned Plastic To Be Launched In Chennai

The civic officials have started moni- portation, distribution and sale of
toring trades involved in transpor- banned plastics in the city. The largest
tation and storage of the banned number of such establishments have
plastic materials in the city. Once been located in zones such as Mad-
the location of such trades is havaram, Tondiarpet, Royapuram,
mapped, the civic body and other Thiru. Vi. Ka. Nagar, Ambattur, Anna
line agencies will initiate regula- Nagar, Teynampet and Perungudi. The
tory measures pertaining to licences. largest quantity of banned plastics have
Initiatives to prevent transporta- been seized in zones such as Anna Na-
tion of banned plastics from other gar and Alandur. Royapuram zone has
reater Chennai Corporation along States will be launched. Their man- reported the highest collection of fine
Gwith police and others will initiate ufacturing in the city will also be amount for violation of the ban on plas-
measures to implement the drive against banned. An awareness campaign will tics. A total of 1.7 tonnes of banned
use of banned plastics in the city. A com- be held in various parts of the city plastics have been seized in Anna Nagar,
mittee of senior officials from the Greater to prevent the distribution of the 1.8 tonnes in Royapuram, 1.1 tonnes
Chennai Corporation, TNPCB, police and banned plastics in commercial areas. in Thiru. Vi. Ka. Nagar, 1.4 tonnes in
other line agencies will initiate measures to Officials have conducted raids in Ambattur, 2 tonnes in Teynampet, 2.6
prevent transportation, storage, wholesale 40,336 commercial establishments tonnes in Kodambakkam, 3 tonnes
and retail sale of banned plastics in the city. responsible for manufacturing, trans- in Adyar and 1.2 tonnes in Alandur.

52 PLASTICS NEWS April 2022