The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will soon implement the Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) in Solid Waste Management policy which will help boost the revenue of Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Ltd. (BSWML). This will make the BSWML earn up to ₹100 crore annually, sources in the civic body said.
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Although the EPR policy was introduced under the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, by the Union Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change, the same was not adopted by the civic body. Not just the BBMP, no urban local body (ULB) in the State showed interest. However, the State government has now decided to adopt the same.
Under the EPR policy, producers, importers, and brand owners of the plastic have the responsibility to treat, reuse, recycle or dispose of the products after consumers have used them. In the absence of such a system, the companies give the waste to collection centres or those who dispose it of for which they have to pay. To further simplify, the BSWML can claim a fee to segregate, process, co-process or end the cycle of the plastic or other solid wastes, from the companies who create this waste, mostly packaging.
A senior civic official said there were allegations that NGOs working with waste processing had been collecting the EPR from companies behind the back of the civic body. The BBMP in the last three years has lost on the EPR revenue. The city’s civic body has the potential to collect ₹80 crore to ₹100 crore annually through the EPR, sources in the civic body estimated. This revenue will enable the BSWML to become financially independent. A senior official said with the civic body officially adopting the EPR policy, the companies that give waste to dry waste collection centres would have to pay fees to the BSWML and those who were allegedly collegally collecting money for the EPR illegally would be eliminated.
An official said a presentation with regard to the EPR that was implemented in Uttar Pradesh was held recently and the State was expected to adopt an EPR policy across the State and not just in BBMP, anytime soon.