Heena Sharma Blog

A legal loophole is allowing an influx of PET bottles into the country, despite a ban on the import of plastic waste , a New Delhi-based environmental organisation has claimed. While China’s ban on importing plastic waste has forced other countries to step up recycling efforts, India has become one of the countries whose plastic waste imports have increased “substantially”. An organisation called the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Smriti Manch (PDUSM) has claimed India’s imports of plastic scraps from China, Japan, Italy and Malawi for recycling and imports of PET bottle scrap and flakes has quadrupled. It says that in the fiscal year 2016-17, the imports were 12,000 tonnes. This figure grew to 48,000 tonnes in FY 2017-18. The organisation also claims that India has already imported 25,000 million tonnes (MT) in the first three months of FY 2018-19. India banned the import of plastic waste – particularly PET bottles –in 2015 because of an inability to recycle them. Experts sugge...

The government has banned manufacturing, use, sale, distribution and storage of plastic materials such as bags, spoons, plates and other disposable items Current Affairs News : Retailers, especially food and grocery chains, are grappling with the newly-implemented plastic ban in Maharashtra, saying that it is impractical in many instances. "For liquid items, what alternative do we have. When we have to move goods from one market to another, there is no alternative. Wherever it is possible, we have used an alternative but in many places, we do not know what to do," said Rakesh Biyani, joint managing director at Future Retail. Neville Noronha, managing director of D-Mart, said that the ban was unfair in commodities such as fresh produce and staples, among others, which are sold in small quantities. "If manufacturers can package the product with plastic, we also should be allowed to package products at the shop floor," he said. The government ...