EPR: The Solution To Plastic Pollution! -

With the government of Maharashtra enforcing a ban on usage, sale, manufacture, and distribution of plastic products state-wide, there’s a general confusion among the public about the products that are banned and those exempted from the ban.

The government has published a booklet showing an illustrative pictorial information about the banned and unbanned products which is available on MPCB website.

What’s Allowed

All Primary Packaging plastic used for wrapping/packing at the manufacturing stage is allowed under the following conditions.
1.     The packaging material should be printed with manufacturers / Brand’s details (i.e. Company name)
2.     Type of plastic with a code number
3.     Buy-back price of Packaging Waste under EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility)
4.     A minimum thickness of 50 microns for all kind of plastics

EPR – The Solution?

While the world is struggling to find a solution to plastic pollution, EPR has emerged as the most promising way to tackle this grave problem. EPR is a radical departure from the traditional linear thinking module of discarding plastic waste and includes everyone – manufacturers, retailers, and consumers in end-of-life product management.

EPR also closes the loop on material management and recovers the discarded plastic waste to use it as a raw material to create new products or as an energy source for end-of-life solutions. Manufacturers, all while complying with the enforcement procedures, need to integrate the extended responsibility with the existing collection system or their own/ collective efforts.