Consumers will be able to return the plastic bottles after consumption and will be paid back according to the value printed on the bottles.
In a bid to comply with new regulations, leading beverage makers such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Bisleri have begun printing a buyback value on all their PET bottles sold in Maharashtra, according to a report by The Economic Times.
Consumers will be able to return the plastic bottles after consumption and will be paid back according to the value printed on the bottles.
Most beverage makers have settled on Rs 15 per kg for the bottles and Rs 5 for shrink wraps even as the government has allowed them to keep the buyback pricing flexible, the report suggests. Shrink wraps are plastic sheets used while packing beverage bottles in bulk.
“There is already a system in place to recycle plastic. What we need to do is make it more efficient and profitable for the stakeholders (such as rag pickers), instead of introducing more processes in the ecosystem of recycling further,” Ramesh Chauhan chairman at Bisleri, told the newspaper.
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“We are working with Gem Enviro to set up reverse vending machines, collection points and collection centres for PET waste bottles at several locations across the state to enable the buyback programme,” a Pepsi spokesperson told the newspaper.
The report adds that Maharashtra had enforced a ban on PET bottles smaller than 200 ml along with other single use disposable plastic items in June. The state had given PET bottle users three months to come up with alternatives.
However, adding buyback value to the bottles has brought about fresh challenges for the beverages makers who suggest that they would not be able to sell those bottles in other states, according to the report.
“While the cost of printing is nominal, it is restrictive because we can’t supply bottles made in Maharashtra to any other state, and neither can we bring and sell bottles from outside the state,” a beverage industry official told the paper.