Plastic packaging a menace, needs to go, say experts

Call for bringing makers of such material under ambit of EPR

Alternative needed: Even online shopping portals use plastics and bubble wrap to package goods.

While single-use plastic carry bags have been banned and action has been initiated to include fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) in the ambit of extended producers responsibility (EPR), experts underline the need for dealing with packaging using bubble wrap and regular plastic sheets. For them, this is a must if the government is serious about curbing the plastic menace.

Environment activist Shweta Narayan said that every manufacturer who uses chemicals in packaging or in their product needs to be brought under EPR. “That is why we are insisting that manufacturers of electronic goods including mobile phones and laptops take back their goods and ensure that they are recycled properly,” she said.

Why the difference?

Ms. Narayan also wanted to know why single-use plastic manufacturers and FMCG producers were being treated differently. “Why this soft-pedalling when it comes to FMCG sector? Why can’t those goods be banned?” she questioned. Only recently, the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board sent notices to a set of FMCG manufacturers asking them to enrol themselves in an EPR programme.

Even online shopping brands pack their goods in plastic sheets and bubble wraps and these too have not been included in EPR, pointed out a plastic industry expert. “Under the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 only three items — plastic carry bags, plastic sheets above 50 micron thickness and multi-layered plastics — have been included under the EPR,” he explained.

Though many industries have been changing their packaging over the years, hundreds of products including brake shoes, wiper blades and hub caps still continue to come wrapped in plastic. Amandeep Singh Kandhari, whose family runs a tyre business on Whites Road, said that Indian tyres do not come packed in plastic any more. “But low-cost Chinese tyres do come packed in a silver-coloured material. Of 500 Chinese tyres, 50 would be in such packing. There is no control on such imported goods. The government must take steps to prevent this,” he said.

Hukmichand D. Shah, president, Federation of Electrical Electronic and Engineering Traders’ Association of Tamil Nadu, said items like switches, plug points and even wires came wrapped in plastic. “This is for protecting the goods from damage due to water and dust. Plastic packaging has been in use in the electrical industry since early 1970s. Though manufacturers have switched over to cardboard boxes for a few items, much more needs to be done. The government needs to provide us an alternative to plastics in packaging and it needs to be cost-effective too. It needs to sit with the manufacturers and bring about a workable solution for packaging,” he said.