Plastic recycling units in city have 30-40% material shortage despite SUP ban
13 Jul 2022 09:12:52
By Kaushik Bhattacharya
On one hand, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has made compulsory to recycle upto 50% plastic over the next three years, while on the other hand plastic recycling units in Nagpur have 30-40% material shortage for recycling.
“There are around 50 plastic recycling units in Nagpur of which only 13 units are Government authorised which come under the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021,” Nishant Birla, Executive Member, Vidarbha Plastic Industries Association told The Hitavada.
Birla is also co-owner of EPR Plastic Pvt Ltd which is a Government recognised plastic recycling firm in city.
All units in city can recycle 200-300 tons of plastic every day whereas it can recycle about 25,000 tons of plastic per month.
“We have huge stock of plastic waste in Bhandewadi dumping yard. But, lack of proper Government mechanism, the plastic waste there remains idle since years. The administration has no resources to recycle it in proper way,” said Birla.
The complete ban on single-use plastic (SUP) by governments will help to recycle fresh plastic that seized from different stakeholders. Even after recycling fresh plastic, the city-based recycling units have a shortage of material of about 30-40%, claimed the recycler.
While asked him about the fate of the seized plastic by authorities, Birla said, “Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) are conducting auctions for the seized plastic. The lowest bidder among these 13 authorised recyclers get the stock to recycle.”
The authorised unit, recycle the normal plastic and send the multi-layer plastic to cement factories that utilise as alternative of coal for production of cement. “The burning of multi-layer plastic in cement factories takes place scientifically to avoid any kind of pollution,” said Birla.
Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has banned SUP in all over country from July 1 onwards. CPCB instructed all SPCBs and PCCs to take action against SUP manufacturers, users and sellers who are selling and buying SUP for strict implementation of ban.
MPCB and NMC has started taking action against such offenders. MPCB recently seized 1.5 ton of SUP from Hingna MIDC and around 500 kg plastic from Wadi area. The authorities are sending these seized plastic to authorised units for recycling.
After selling the seized plastic to the unit, the authorities is keeping vigil over its proper recycling. “The authorities asked us to share videos of recycling process of the plastic and other details of the whole procedure to restrict the re-entry of SUP in the markets. We are following all the instructions shared by them,” said Birla.