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Chapter – 1: Annual Report (2011-12) on Implementation of PWM
Plastic products have become an integral part in our daily life as a basic need. It
produced on a massive scale worldwide and its production crosses the 150 million
tonnes per year globally. In India approximately 8 Million tonnes plastic products are
consumed every year (2008) which is expected to rise 12 milllion tones by 2012. Its
broad range of application is in packaging films, wrapping materials, shopping and
garbage bags, fluid containers, clothing, toys, household and industrial products, and
building materials. It is a fact that plastics will never degrade and remains on landscape
for several years. The recycled plastics are more harmful to the environment than the
virgin products due to mixing of colour, additives, stabilizers, flame retardants etc.
Further, the recycling of a virgin plastic material can be done 2-3 time only, because,
after every recycling, the strength of plastic material is reduced due to thermal
degradation. It is to mention that no authentic estimation is available on total
generation of plastic waste in the country however, considering 70% of total plastic
consumption is discarded as waste, thus approximately 5.6 million tons per annum
(TPA) of plastic waste is generated in country, which is about 15342 tons per day
(TPD).
Environmental issues on disposal of Plastic Waste:
Indiscriminate littering of unskilled recycling/reprocessing and non-biodegradability of
plastic waste raises the following environmental issues:
• During polymerization process fugitive emissions are released.
• During product manufacturing various types of gases are released.
• Indiscriminate dumping of plastic waste on land makes the land infertile due to its
barrier properties.
• Burning of plastics generates toxic emissions such as Carbon Monoxide, Chlorine,
Hydrochloric Acid, Dioxin, Furans, Amines, Nitrides, Styrene, Benzene, 1, 3-
butadiene, CCl4, and Acetaldehyde.
Lead and Cadmium pigments, commonly used in LDPE, HDPE and PP as additives
are toxic and are known to leach out.
• Non-recyclable plastic wastes such as multilayer, metalised pouches and other
thermoset plastic poses disposal problems.
• Sub-standard plastic carry bags, packaging films (<40µ) etc. pose problem in
collection and recycling.
• Littered plastics give unaesthetic look in the city, choke the drain and may cause
flood during monsoon .
• Garbage mixed with plastics interferes in waste processing facilities and also cause
problems in landfill operations.
• Recycling industries operating in non-conforming areas are posing threat to
environment to unsound recycling practices.
Salient Features of the PWM Rules, 2011:
(i) The plastic carry bags used for the purpose of carrying or dispensing commodities but don’t
include these bags which are integral part of packaged products. The thickness of bag
shall not be <40µ;
(ii) Carry bags can also be made from compostable plastics conforming IS/ISO:17088:2008;
(iii) Prescribed Authority for registration, manufacture & recycling shall be State Pollution Control
Board (SPCB) or Pollution Control Committee (PCC). And for enforcement of Rules
relating to use, collection, segregation, transportation & disposal of plastic waste, shall be
concerned Municipal Authority;
(iv) Multilayered pouches or sachets used for packaging of gutkha etc. shall not use plastic material
in any form;
(v) Every carry bags made from plastic shall bear a label or mark “recycled” as per IS:14534:1998.
Each carry bag made from “Compostable Material” shall bear a label “Compostable” &
shall conform to IS/ISO:17088:2008;
(vi) No carry bag shall be made available free of cost by retailers to consumers. The concerned
Municipal Authority may be notification determine the minimum price for carry bags in
order to encourage re-use so as to minimize plastic waste generation;
(vii) Each State Government shall for constitute a State Level Advisory (SLA) Body to monitor
implementation of Rules. This body shall meet once in a year and may invite experts, if it
considers necessary.
(viii) The Plastic Waste Management (PWM) shall be as under;
(a) recycling, recovery or disposal of plastic waste shall be carried out as per the rules,
regulations and standards stipulated by the central government from time to time;
(b) recycling of plastics shall be carried out in accordance with the Indian
Standard IS 14534:1998 titled as Guidelines for Recycling of Plastics, as
amended from time to time;
© the Municipal Authority shall be responsible for setting up, operationalisation and coordination
of the waste management system and for performing the associated
functions, namely:- (i) to ensure safe collection, storage, segregation, transportation,
processing and disposal of plastic waste; (ii) to ensure that no damage is caused to the
environment during this process; (iii) to ensure setting up of collection centres for plastic
waste involving manufacturers; (iv) to ensure its channelisation to recyclers; (v) to
create awareness among all stakeholders about their responsibilities; (vi) to engage
agencies or groups working in waste management including waste pickers, and (vii) to
ensure that open burning of plastic waste is not permitted;
(d) for setting up plastic waste collection centres, the Municipal Authority may ask the
manufacturers, either collectively or individually in line with the principle of Extended
Producer's Responsibility (EPR) to provide the required finance to establish such
collection centre;
(e) recyclers shall ensure that recycling facilities are in accordance with the Indian Standard:
IS 14534:194 titled as Guidelines for Recycling of Plastics and in compliance
with the rules under the Environment (Protection) Ad, 1986, as amended from
time to time;
(f) the concerned Municipal Authority shall ensure that the residues generated from recycling
processes are disposed of in compliance with Schedule II (Management of Municipal Solid
Wastes) and Schedule III (Specifications for Landfill Sites) of the Municipal Solid Wastes
(Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 made under the Environment (Protection) Act,
1986, as amended from time to time;
(g) the Municipal Authority shall incorporate the said rules in the Municipal Bye- laws of all the Urban
Local Bodies;
(h) the Municipal Authority shall encourage the use of plastic waste by adopting suitable
technology such as in Road Construction, Co-incineration etc. The Municipal Authority or
the operator intending to use such technology shall ensure the compliance with
the prescribed standards including pollution norms prescribed by the Competent Authority
in this regard.
(ix) Each SPCB or PCC shall prepare and submit Annual Report to CPCB by 30th day of
September each year. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) shall consolidate the
report on use of plastic carry bags, sachets/pouches etc. and management of plastic
waste. The consolidated report alongwith recommendations on implementation of the
Plastic Waste (Management & Handling) (Amendment) Rules, 2011 will be submitted to
MoEF by 30th Day of December.
Observations:
There is no prescribed format in the PWM (Amendment) Rules, 2011 for preparation of
Annual Report, hence, a format was developed and sent to all SPCBs/PCCs, asking them
to provide requisite information in the prescribed format for preparation of Annual Report.
Out of 34 SPCB/PCCs, only 20 SPCBs/PCCs have provided the requisite information,
however, the remaining 14 SPCBs/PCC have not yet submitted any such information on
implementation of the PWM Rules, 2011 for unknown regions. However, out of 20
SPCBs/PCCs, some States/UTs have not given complete information as per the provisions
of the Rules, therefore, the implementation status of these Boards namely Andhra
Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, U.P., Delhi,
Puducherry etc. is incomplete. Further, based on available information as well as random
inspections carried by CPCB team in reference of Hon’ble Supreme Court Compliance and
matter for ‘Committee of Assurance’. The State-wise implementation status of the PWM
(Amendment) Rules, 2011 have been prepared and shown at Annexure-I. It has been
further observed that most of the States & Union Territories have certain doubts about
following points which may be one of the cause for not submitting the reports on time.
1. Definition of “Conventional Plastic” and Compostable Plastic or Material;
2. There is no logo or mark given in the Rules for Compostable material/film;
3. Under Rule 4 (a) which agency will execute the Enforcement on ‘stock,
distribute, use and sale of plastic carry bag or sachets or pouches’;
4. The SPCB/PCCs are not enforcing regulations on “‘stock, distribute, use and
sale of plastic carry bag or sachets or pouches’;
5. Under Rule 4 (b), the implementation on use of plastic waste (excluding use of
plastic carry bag or sachets or pouches) is being implemented by Municipal
Authority;
6. Some States like Punjab, Kerala, M.P. etc. are still maintaining thickness of carry
bags <40µ, however, as per PWM Rules, 2011, the thickness of carry bags shall
not less than 40µ. Also some States like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu has
increased thickness 50µ & 60µ respectively.
Recommendations :
Disposal of plastic waste is a serious concern in India and such no technology has been
validated, however, several experiments have been conducted on reuse of plastic waste in road
construction, co-processing of plastic waste in cement kilns. Currently, Worldwide accepted
technology used for the plastic disposal is incineration, however, due to poor maintenance of incinerators, it releases several harmful gases including dioxins and furans in case of chlorinated
and brominated plastic waste therefore, raising several environmental issues. In India, for safer
disposal of plastic waste, various technologies have been experimented such as Utilization of
plastic waste in road construction, Co-processing of Plastic waste in Cement Kilns. The key
issues relating to non-implementation of PWM Rules, 2011 are mainly emerged as
indiscriminate use of sub-standard plastic carry bags and littering in cities and towns and use of
plastic sachets or pouches in packaging of gutkha, tobacco and pan masala .
Listing of key points based on interaction with representative of SPCBs/PCCs and other
agencies may be considered for making suitable amendments in the Rule or issue an Office
Memorandum for better PWM Rules, 2011 ;
(i) Definition of Plastic (Petro-based) and Compostable Plastic or Material (Renewable) may
be looked in the existing PWM Rules.
(ii)The monitoring mechanism shall be strengthened so that sub-standard carry bags (<40µ)
are not available in the market.
(iii) Prescribed Authority for enforcement on use of plastic carry bags and sachets &
pouches may be mentioned in the existing PWM Rules, 2011.
(iv) The recommendations of Biodegradable Committee (under Director-General CIPET)
may be examined by MoEF in the light of thickness and use of compostable plastic or
material for food packagings.
(v) Municipal Authority may be directed to submit Annual Report to SPCBs/PCCs on
implementation of PWM Rules, 2011, as the same is not given in the Rules.
Accordingly, suitable amendments be made in the Rules.
(vi) SPCBs/PCCs may be asked to utilize plastic waste in road construction, co-processing
of plastic waste in cement kilns, conversion of plastic waste into liquid fuel etc.
(vii) SPCBs/PCCs should develop laboratory facility for testing of thickness of plastic carry
bags and plastic material in the sachets/pouches.
(viii) The thickness of plastic carry bags shall be uniform, as some States are still allowing to
manufacture carry bags <40µ such as Madhya Pradesh, Kerala etc.
(ix) All Municipalities may be directed to submit Annual Report to concerned SPCBs/PCCs
by 31st August of the year. Subsequently SPCBs/PCCs may also be directed to
submit Annual Report for 2012 by September, 2012.
This being the 1st year for submission of Annual Report on implementation of PWM
Rules, 2011 therefore, the performance of SPCBs/PCCs in submission of Annual
Report for the year 2011-12 is not very satisfactorily. Also it has been reported that,
the implementation of various provisions of the Rules during 2011-12 is not adequate
because a number of public complaints and RTIs have been received in CPCB in
respect of use and sale of sub- standard (thin) plastic carry bags (< 40µ) in the
cities/towns. Besides, it is also been observed that thin carry bags are available with all
hawkers, vendors, shopkeepers, open markets etc. in Delhi. Further, violations of
Rule 5 (d) and (g) have also been reported from different States and Union Territories
including Delhi during random inspections carried out by CPCB team.
Chapter – 2: Indicative Guideline for Plastic Waste Management (PWM)
Introduction:
Plastics are non-biodegradable, synthetic polymers derived primarily from petro-fossil
feedstock and made-up of long chain hydrocarbons with additives and can be moulded into
finished products excluding compostable plastic or polymer confirming IS/ISO 17088:2008.
These polymers are broken in presence of suitable catalyst, into monomers such as
ethylene, propylene, vinyl, styrene and benzene. These monomers are then chemically
polymerized into different categories of plastics.
Categories of plastics
The main category of plastics include ;
A. Recyclable Plastics (Thermoplastics): PET, HDPE, LDPE, PP, PVC, PS, etc.
B. Non-Recyclable Plastics (Thermoset & others): Multilayer & Laminated Plastics,
PUF, Bakelite, Polycarbonate, Melamine, Nylon etc.
1) As per BIS Codification as notified in Rule 8 (b) of the Plastic Waste (Management
and Handling) (Amendment) Rules, 2011, there are seven categories of plastics:
Usage of Plastics and Waste:
Plastic products have become an integral part in everybody’s daily life. Its production
crosses the 150 million tonnes per year globally and in India, approximately 8 Million
tonnes plastic products are consumed every year (2008)1
. It has broad range of application
in films, wrapping materials, shopping and garbage bags, fluid containers, clothing, toys,
household and industrial products, and building materials. Once plastic is discarded after
its utility is over, it is known as plastic waste. It is a fact that plastics waste never degrades,
and remain on landscape for several years. Mostly, plastic waste are recyclable but,
recycled products are more harmful to the environment as thus contains additives and
colours . The recycling of a virgin plastic material can be done 2-3 times only, because
after every recycling, the plastic material deteriorates due to thermal pressure and its life
span is reduced. Hence recycling is not a safer and permanent solution for plastic waste
disposal. It is estimated that approximately 70% of plastic packaging products are
converted into plastic waste in a short span. Approximately 5.6 million tons per annum
(TPA) plastic waste is generated in country, which amounts to 15342 tons per day (TPD)