Hotels, marriage choultries, food ordering and delivery platforms and even the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) will now have to tow the line on solid waste management. The NGT’s State Level Monitoring Committee (SLMC) has made usage of reusable cutlery and in-house composting mandatory, among other major decisions.
The committee, under the chairmanship of Subash B. Adi, on Monday convened a meeting of hotels and choultry owners to discuss issues pertaining to solid and plastic waste management, appraise them about the necessity of implementation of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 and the plastic ban. Among those who participated were D. Randeep, Special Commissioner, BBMP and Manoj Kumar, Member Secretary, KSPCB.
Incentives to ‘green’ choultries
After deliberations, the committee announced that all the choultries and hotels must adopt the ‘green wedding’ concept with reusable cutlery for serving food and mandatorily compost in-house organic waste. The BBMP has been directed to provide incentives for zero waste initiatives, such as green choultries, through star rating and subsidy in tax.
A press release said that food ordering and delivery platforms will have to submit to the BBMP within three weeks a detailed alternative model for dispensing food.
Alternatives to banned items
In addition, the Environmental Management Policy and Research Institute (EMPRI), the autonomous institute established by the Karnataka government, has been directed to prepare a list of alternatives to banned items and provide a list of suppliers through the websites of the BBMP, KSPCB and EMPRI. The institute has also been asked to conduct awareness programmes in co-ordination with the hotel and choultry associations.
During the meeting, representatives of hotels and choultries put forth the difficulties they face in implementing some of the rules.
Among them was water shortage to clean reusable cutlery, the need for directions to caterers not to use bottles, cups, spoons and forks made of plastic, the need for training choultries to implement in-situ composting, and incentives from the BBMP for installing plastic crushing and baling machines in choultreis and hotels.
The release said choultries had agreed to implement the green wedding concept by banning single-use plastic items, using plantain leafs and adopting in-house composting. Representatives of Swiggy agreed to submit an alternative model for dispensing food, the release added.
Milk in containers?
The KMF has been told to supply milk in containers to bulk consumers instead of plastic sachets.
M.T. Kulkarni, Director, Marketing, KMF, said the Federation will work towards implementing the direction. He said bulk consumers, such as restaurants and hotels, are supplied milk in ‘jumbo’ plastic sachets of 6-litre capacity, of less than 50 micron thickness.
A senior KMF official said that earlier, containers were used, but replaced with sachets as using containers led to cost escalation and distribution issues. “Supplying milk in containers will essentially mean having to get back these containers, washing them for the next day’s supply. Besides, containers are prone to damage. This adds to the cost of milk,” the official said.