Majors respond to DC on plastic waste

Thiruvananthapuram: A brand audit, conducted by high school children as part of a summer camp organised by the Green Army and Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, has denominated Unilever, ITC and Milma as the highest plastic waste producing brands in 50 city households.

Participants of ‘Harithanagaram V 2.0’ were asked to bring five most frequently used products, either made of plastic or packaged in plastic, from their houses. Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) accounted for 33.8 per cent, ITC for 29.4 per cent and Milma for 18.2 per cent of the 250 products which the children brought.

There was a wide variety of products ranging from atta packets, masala packets, agarbatti packets, toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, milk packets, bottles of shampoo, deodorants and cleaning agents. There were easily recyclable plastic materials as well as had multilayer packaging.

According to the EPR rules delineated in Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016, the onus of managing plastic waste lies with the producers (including manufacturers and brand owners who use plastic for packaging). While many grown-ups find it difficult to understand the concept of EPR, according to Green Army mentor Ashin Mohan, the exercise was very effective. “Children understood how the responsibility of disposal of waste was with the producer,” he said.

When DC contacted HUL, ITC and Milma, informing them of the audit results, they said they had been doing their best to comply with EPR. The HUL spokesperson said that they had reduced nearly one-third of their plastic packaging since 2010, and were committed to ensuring that 100 per cent of their plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. The ITC spokesperson asserted that plastic was by far the best alternative for packaging of various categories of consumer goods, but added that they were running waste management interventions in 25 locations in India.

Milma Chairman P.T. Gopala Kurup told DC, “We know that plastic is a big threat, but collecting the packets is not very practical for us. However we have been exploring technologies which offer degradable packaging materials, but have not yet found anything suitable.”  The audit had listed other brands, but DC could not get in touch with their spokespersons.