In Pune, nearly 15 lakh litres of milk are sold daily in plastic pouches. (File)Dairies in Maharashtra are not sure what to do after state Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam recently gave them 15 days to come up with a buyback plan to recycle the plastic pouches they use to sell milk. The dairy owners pointed out that it was unrealistic to expect them to draw up a plan as they had no expertise in this area.
R S Sodhi, managing director of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, the owner of brand Amul, said, “Dairies don’t have the necessary knowhow about this”.
Ravindra Apte, chairman of the Kolhapur District Cooperative Milk Producers Union, which sells milk and dairy products under the Gokul brand, said dairies alone would not be able to come up with such a plan. “Most retail customers don’t bring back the pouches so how can dairies be asked to come up with a buyback plan? Instead, a comprehensive plan that involves municipal authorities should be put in place,” he said.
Last year, after the state government completely banned the use of plastic, dairies have been trying to figure out how to dispose of the milk pouches they use to sell milk to retail customers.
Initially, dairies were asked to print a buyback policy on the milk pouches and then develop a mechanism to ensure that the collected pouches were transported to the plastic recyclers. But no solution could be worked out, prompting the dairies to warn that they will stop the supply of milk to urban markets like Pune and Mumbai. Faced with a possible disruption in the supply of milk, Kadam had given the dairies some time to develop a process to address the problem.
In Pune, nearly 15 lakh litres of milk are sold daily in plastic pouches. Industry sources say that although all the dairies have started printing the buyback policy on the pouches, few customers have availed of the offer.
“Also, of the 2,000 tonnes of solid waste produced in Pune on a daily basis, only 3-4 tonnes consist of milk pouches,” said a dairy owner.
The dairies had also tried using bottles to deliver the milk, but this led to a cost escalation of around Rs 4-5 per litre of milk.
As the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board gets ready to issue notices to dairies and ask for their buyback plans, most dairies are clueless about how to proceed further.
