Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has been ignoring the extended producer responsibility (EPR) for all plastic producers, importers and brand owners, which has resulted in increase of wet trash by 20 per cent every year. Surprisingly, the GHMC has not prepared bylaws so far as mandated by the Central government’s plastic waste management rules (PWMR), unveiled in 2016.
The GHMC has been passing the buck to the state pollution control board (SPCB), saying the SPCB was the nodal agency to issue notices and bring brand owners in to a framework.
Official sources in GHMC told Deccan Chronicle that besides the ITC and Godrej groups, none of the other marketing gaints producing humongous amounts of plastic waste have submitted their plan for an EPR.
Consequently, the GHMC, the nodal agency to penalise food vendors, pushcart vendors and other food businesses, has been even turning a blind eye towards environmental impact. As a result, daily production of garbage in Hyderabad has increased from 3,500 metric tonne to 7,000 metric tonne within a span of four years.
Food delivery firms like Swiggy, Zomato and UberEats do not fall under the Plastic Waste Management Rules, since they only deliver the food items produced by food joints.
Sources said that despite huge growth in use of plastic, its manufacturers and brand owners were unaware of the clauses of EPR, despite an announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti.
This apart, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in a matter of Aditya Dubey versus Amazon Retail India Private Limited and Oth-ers, dated October 22, issu-ed an order regarding exce-ssive use of plastic packaging materials by Amaz-on.in and Flipkart.com as e-marketing businesses, which were in violation of the EPR and the PWMR, 2016. The NGT had directed the Central Pollution Cont-rol Board to submit a status report within two months.
A senior official said GHMC was only responsible for plastic sold in retail shops and vendors outlets. However, the official said that GHMC was yet to finalise bylaws regarding EPR. He said the GHMC was an enforcing authority whereas the PCB was the nodal agency.
D. Narendra, senior environmentalist, PCB, said that the board had already issued notices to about 600 firms, manufacturers and brand owners in Telangana. He said that 50 per cent of them have already responded to notices issued for submitting an action plan for EPR.
He said that notices were issued to major manufacturers like Paradise hotel, Vijaya Dairy, Chennai Silks, Amazon, D'Mart, Big Bazaar, Heritage Group, Reliance Trends, among others.
GHMC commissioner D S, Lokesh Kumar was not available to give a response on the failings of the corporations in implementing these crucial environment laws.
