The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) recently began writing to manufacturers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), directing them to ensure product wrappers were collected back from consumers and processed properly.
This will bring such manufacturers into the ambit of extended producer responsibility (EPR).
“Most of these are products that are in multiple States and therefore they have to register with the Central Pollution Control Board,” a TNPCB official said.
Ensuring accountability
They also have to coordinate with the respective local bodies where their products are being sold and put in place a system of collection and processing,” explained the official.
These wrappers are usually multi-layered packs, meaning layers of plastics, aluminium foil and print are fused at different temperatures to make them.
“They should not be found in bins and garbage dumpyards. The wrappers are their responsibility till the end of the product’s life,” he said.
Producers of single-use plastic items and civil society activists have been gunning for EPR for multi-layered packing items.
These wrappers usually form the bulk of plastic waste.