Environment

December 12, 2009 | By Naresh Khanna

Decrease Increase

In India flexible packaging is not only larger in value terms than fibre-based packaging but its proponents also claim that it is growing faster than all other types of packaging. While this may be true, the recycling of plastic packaging and in fact all types of packaging and waste is neither organised nor efficient, notwithstanding the myth that, “everything in India is recycled either because it is re-used or because there are so many poor people who work as scanvengers and refuse collectors and sell the waste for a living.” In fact, as the Swedish packaging consultant Dr. Anders Soras recently explained in New Delhi, “Packaging recycling cannot be left to the end users. The collection and recycling of packaging has to be the industry’s work for it to be either efficient or effective.” We know for instance, that less than 20% of the waste paper in India reaches the paper mills for recyling.

Meanwhile, there has been great consternation at the proposed 16 September 2009 order of the Ministry of Environment and Forests on the use of plastics in packaging. This proposed order is available on the Internet, and although the 60 day period for suggestions and criticism was over on 16 November 2009, it still requires thorough study and understanding. As do some of the draft replies from industry groups that we have published in this issue (page 11 to 16).

The draft order will of course need to be amended to suit the realities of the society and industry. The realities are that in our society plastic based materials seem to provide great value — maximum protection and utility at minimum cost, and also that there are neither organised recycling systems nor any enforcement of the environment laws.

The issues are both serious and complex, and we can only hope that the Ministry of Environment and Forests will take up the challenging issue of plastics in packaging methodically, and as a part of the new industrial, distribution and service systems that are coming into being as the economy grows.