Minimise use of plastic, pollution board tells states

More than two months after the environment ministry, while notifying the new Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, hinted at the possibility of banning thermoset products, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) early this week rolled out guidelines to effectively deal with the non-recyclable plastic by proposing to states that the most preferred option is to minimise its use as much as they can.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) had in January 2015 urged the CPCB to formulate the guidelines which ensure safe disposal.

Used widely in daily-use items like electrical appliances, coffee machines, toasters, automobiles, etc., thermoset plastic is a material that can’t be remoulded or recycled. Its abysmal collection rate for proper disposal adds to the problem.

Noting that municipal bodies currently have no system for collection, segregation and transportation of all kinds of plastic waste, the CPCB stressed that the primary aim is to minimise use of thermoset plastic and send it only to cement kilns for co-processing through proper coordination if the civic authorities fail to comply with the first option. It considers the disposal of thermoset plastic in landfill sites as a last resort.

“The most preferred option is minimisation of use of thermoset products and promoting use of alternate material, which could be easily recyclable, reusable and degradable,” CPCB said in its guidelines, adding, “The collection of such waste shall be done by manufacturing industries under Extended Producers’ Responsibility (which was notified in the recent revamping of the rules) and by local authorities so that it could be taken to co-processing in cement kilns for recovery of material and energy value present in the plastic waste”.

The guidelines added: “The producers of thermoset plastic, major user like industries, electricity authority in consultation with local authority shall arrange to collect the waste and hand over to cement plants (sic). They shall maintain a record of quantity generated and handed over to cement plant which shall maintain a record of quantity received and utilized.” It added that producers of such wastes shall assist the cement plants for establishment of required facilities for utilisation of thermoset waste.

The CPCB said the disposal of thermoset waste in a secured landfill site leads to major issues in cities and landfill sites become unusable.