5-yr programme on plastic management kicks off

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 2

The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and the Punjab Plastic Waste Management Society (PPWMS) on Tuesday launched a five-year programme for effectively managing post-consumer multi-layered packaging (MLP) in the state. It was inaugurated by Environment Minister OP Soni and PPCB chairman Prof Satwinder Singh Marwaha, marking the fourth anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

The MLP is a form of plastic that is used in packaging snacks, like chips, chocolates, biscuits, toffees and other ready to eat products.

Soni said the MLP could be used in cement plants, road laying and other works. He added that to extract fuel oil from the MLP, a pyrolysis was established in Patiala. Prof Marwaha said the programme would kick-off in Amritsar and Patiala and gradually expand to other cities of Punjab.

Senior representatives from the member companies of the PPWMS, a consortium of 26 fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies, in partnership with the Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA) pledged to collect and re-process 1,100 tonnes of post-consumer MLP in Punjab in the first year. It is 20 per cent of 5,500 tonne of plastic brought in the state every year. To announce the state MLP free by 2022, it will be increased to 20 per cent annually.

For this, ragpickers will be offered Rs 9 per kg rate for the MLP which they have not been collecting so far. Since MLP does not have any commercial value, ragpickers don’t pick it up, which ultimately adds to the pollution, said Ashish Jain, who has been associated with an NGO dealing with ragpickers for the past 17 years.

He said marine environmentalists had already warned that if the use of plastic continued unabated then there would be more plastic than fish in oceans by 2050.

Krunesh Garg, Member-Secretary, Punjab Pollution Control Board, said, the consortium would engage with waste management service providers in training waste pickers, creating awareness, collecting and responsibly re-processing multi-layered plastic.

MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu, Deputy Commissioner Kamaldeep Singh Sangha, PPCB Chief Engineer GS Majithia, Senior Environmental Engineer Sandeep Behal and XEN Harpal Singh Xen were also present.