Amid confusion, industry gropes for clarity

Vijay C Roy in Chandigarh

WHEN China banned plastic carry bags in 2008, it gave manufacturers and retailers around six months to comply with the new regulations and offer alternative to plastic bags. Soon, China managed to significantly reduce its dependence on plastic bags. In India, despite the introduction of the Plastic Waste Management Rules in 2016, not much headway has been made to deal with the challenges posed by plastic. States such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, to name a few, did respond with a ban on single-use plastic (SUP) and plastic carry bags, but, a comprehensive approach and strategy to curb the menace is sadly missing.

Also read: : Plasticked off

The implementation

Were these sporadic bans, wherever introduced, implemented and followed strictly? No. The production and use of plastic is prevalent in most states. In June this year, the Punjab Pollution Control Board, along with the local civic bodies, seized nearly 4,000 kg of plastic carry bags across the state, even though the manufacturing, stocking, distribution, recycling, selling or use of plastic carry bags is prohibited in the state since April 1, 2016. Sources inform that although around 450 legitimate manufacturers in the state had stopped the production of plastic bags, a huge amount of plastic was coming into the state from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. Once the Centre bans the use of plastic carry bags, it will be difficult to manufacture them. “Manufacturing of plastic carry bags is banned in Punjab but not in many other states. We hope once the regulation is in place, we would be able to control the menace of plastic bags,” said KS Pannu, the Punjab Pollution Control Board chairman.    

The confusion 

The likely ban on single-use plastic products would impact most industries as plastic is used for packaging in almost all units. Currently, most people are seeking clarity on which products qualify as single use and which don’t. Manufacturers allege that there are states like Gujarat, West Bengal and Kerala where carry bags above 50 microns of thickness are allowed, while in as many as 18 states, including Punjab, they are not. The absence of a uniform policy and clarity is creating chaos, the manufacturers complain.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) national president BC Bhartia and secretary general Praveen Khandelwal said that the government should look at providing an alternative to the plastic-manufacturing industry as it provides employment to lakhs of people.

The options 

An alternative to plastic carry bags could be compostable bags. These look and feel like plastic carry bags, but, are biodegradable and strong.  According to Gurdeep Singh Batra, president of the Plastic Manufacturers & Traders Association (Punjab), the industry will take at least a month to meet the demand following stricter implementation on October 2. He said the existing manufacturers of plastic carry bags can switch to producing biodegradable bags with a nominal investment.

According to manufacturers, the ban will give a big push to compostable manufacturing units. Currently, there are 35 units engaged in the manufacturing of compostable bags, having a combined capacity of 50,000-1 lakh ton per annum of carry bags. However, cost wise, the compostable bags are almost twice the price of plastic carry bags. A 1kg of compostable bags cost around Rs 400 compared to Rs 200 for plastic bags. According to insiders, around 250 units have already applied to the Central Pollution Control Board to seek clearance for manufacturing compostable bags.

Constraints

Officials say that if the government is really serious about the ban, the guidelines should come with severe punitive action. However, the biggest challenge will be putting a ban on multi-layer packaging (MLP) such as snack packaging, which also comes under single-use plastic, and has no other viable packaging option. Secondly, milk pouches also come under single-use plastic, and only 15-20 per cent of these pouches are recycled. Experts feel that the ban on bags below 50 microns would not yield the required result because manufacturers will shift to bags above 50 micron, which are still cheaper than cloth and can be reused by the consumers and are out of the purview of SUP.