IMPLEMENTATION OF PLASTIC WASTE MANAGEMENT RULES IN

INDIA
-Shantanu Jha
-1RV20IS046

Plastics refer to synthetic materials made from polymers with desirable

properties such as durability, resistance to chemical attacks and lightweight nature.
Owing to their ease of processing, plastics are used widely in every facet of life,
ranging from food packaging to usage in aviation and spacecraft. Though plastics are
romanticized as the dream material representing a modern utopia, certain
characteristics they exhibit have proven to be anything but.

Plastics have proven to be extremely difficult to decompose by nature owing to

their chemical structure. The average plastic water bottle one uses for daily
consumption would take 450 years on an average to decompose. This property of
theirs leads to a confounding conundrum, it causes governments worldwide to ponder
upon a safe disposal method for plastics. Inefficient practises in the past have lead to
excessive dumping of plastics in landfills, waterways and oceans, and humanity is
paying the price for their unthoughtful actions toward nature.
In light of the challenge of plastic waste disposal, the Ministry of Environment,
Forest and Climate Change in India had introduced a set of rules in 2016 titled as
Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rules. The PWM Rules, 2016, aimed to promote
responsible plastic waste management practices, reduced the adverse environmental
impacts associated with plastic waste and encouraged recycling. They formed a crucial
framework for managing plastic waste in India and driving the transition towards a
more sustainable and eco-friendly approach.

PWM Rules, India Logo EPR Cycle

The PWM Rules had introduced a new concept known as EPR, which stands for
Extended Producer Responsibility. EPR is a policy approach that holds the producers
accountable for the entire lifecycle of their products, including the management of post
consumer waste. It encouraged producers to take active measures to reduce the
environmental impact caused by their services/products.
EPR in India is applied to a wide variety of products specified under the
legislation, including but not limited to plastic packaging, electronics, and tires. As per
the government mandates, the Producer organizations are required to meet certain
specific recycling and recovery targets set by the government and submit regular
reports on the same. In order to achieve their EPR objectives, Producer organizations
may opt to form consortiums in order to fulfil their collective EPR obligations as well
as coordinate with local authorities to establish a proper waste collection
infrastructure.
 Ever since its inception in 2016, several Indian companies have actively
implemented EPR practices in compliance with waste management regulations.
Companies such as Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Coca-Cola India, Nestle India,
ITC Limited and Colgate-Palmolive India Limited have set up proper recycling
infrastructure and are involved in actively reusing plastic from the collected waste. Dell
India, a leading technology company, offers collection and recycling services for its
end-of-life electronic products, adhering to the E-Waste Management Rules.

In addition to EPR, the Indian government took more active measures in order
to combat the plastic pollution. One such measure was banning plastic bags with a
thickness of less than 50 microns, i.e., thin bags that were extremely difficult for nature
to decompose. This ban also extended to the packaging of gukhta, pan masala and
tobacco products owing to the multi-layered plastic satchels used in their packaging.
The ban was comprehensive and despite its stringent nature, certain exceptions
were put in place to ensure the smooth functioning of essential sectors such as the
medical sector. Even to date, hospitals use plastics for their medical tools such as
syringes, surgical gloves, IV tubes and others. Plastic was also allowed to be used in
packaging milk and in the pharmaceutical industry. In addition, the ban didn’t come
into force immediately. A grace period was given to the businessmen to facilitate a
smooth transition from banned plastic products to alternative measures. It was also in
this time that woven baskets and jute bags grew increasingly popular following the ban
of thin plastic bags, thus providing the economically weaker section a new product
they could produce and sell.
The plastic ban was enforced very seriously, the authorities conducted regular
inspections in order to ensure proper compliance with the new government policy.
Heavy penalties were levied upon individuals or businesses that distributed banned
plastic products, reinforcing the seriousness of the initiative and indirectly fuelling the
growth of the three R’s, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Usage of Plastics in Medical Sector 3 R’s : Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

The PWM rules also came up with a new framework called the Plastic Waste
Management Hierarchy which guides the prioritization of actions for efficient plastic
waste management. The PWM Hierarchy emphasized the importance of waste
reduction, recycling, and proper waste disposal. The Hierarchy had the following five
steps: Source Reduction, Reduce and Repurpose, Recycling, Energy Recovery and
Disposal, with Source Reduction being the most desired trait of a waste management
system and Disposal being the least desired trait.
The government, in addition to the above rules, had also come up with plastic
waste segregation and collection guidelines. Several public awareness programmes
were carried out on media such as newspapers and TV and also saw a rise in student
initiatives such as the Green Ambassador Program. Waste segregation was to be
enforced as the new norm and a transition was occurring in the way the local
municipalities handled waste. The government played an active role in setting up the
infrastructure for proper plastic waste management and collaborated with several
entities such as local municipalities, informal waste pickers and NGOs to seamlessly
collect waste.
With the establishment of the PWM Rules, a new direction in technological
innovation was laid out. Mobile applications and digital platforms were used for tasks
such as waste collection scheduling, tracking and reporting, leading to the conversion
of a static modus operandi of the local entities into a more real-time model. Research is
being carried out into optimizing the costs of Smart Bins that monitor the level of
waste in them. Robotics is also heavily used in waste segregation with funds
channelled into system designs and optimizations.
 Recycling Robots in
Waste Management Smart Bins

Plastic Waste Management remains a serious concern in today’s rapidly paced

world that generates more plastic than it consumes. Among the many methods of
tackling this pressing issue, the Indian Government’s Plastic Waste Management Rules
have laid a steady framework that aids in our country’s fight against this encroaching,
insidious threat. With technological innovation and proper paradigms fuelled by
humanitarian concerns, this threat can be quelled before it does any more harm to our
precious environment and humanity as a whole.