To motivate our policymakers towards strategizing effective waste management WeCare with The Policy Times organizes a WeCare Policy Dialogue Series on ‘Issues of Plastic Waste Management & Single-Use Plastics in India’ The first Regional Conference – Northern India of the WeCare Policy Dialogue Series was held on Friday 25th February 2022 where 500 industry leaders from SPCBs, ULBs, Industry, NGOs, Brands, Institutions from across the country participated
Video Link: WeCare Policy Dialogue Series: Virtual Regional Conference – Northern India
In the inaugural session, Shri Bansidhar Bhagat, Hon’ble Cabinet Minister Urban Development, Housing & Information Govt. of Uttarakhand expressed concern on the pernicious effects of Plastic and emphasized its judicious use and disposal. He delineated the strategies Uttarakhand government is working on, to keep plastic away which includes buying plastic from the public, making roads with plastic. Shri. Chander Mohan Gupta, Hon’ble Mayor of Jammu Municipal Corporation, said in conjunction with UNDP, the Municipal Corporation often combines 2500-3,000 metric tons of single plastic, which has been processed and sent to Agencies. Jammu Municipal Corporation will do such a development, that will not have to send the single-use plastic to any company for processing and recycling. The work of segregation is going door to door. Training of waste segregation to IAS officers and administrative staff are also being imparted.
Er. Krunesh Garg, Hon’ble Member Secretary Punjab Pollution Control Board said that for checking the use of plastic, they have formed Punjab Plastic Waste Management Society with around 48 brand owners or producers as its members. Society helps each other to understand the policy to guide the policymakers. Society targets collecting multi-layer plastic waste from different parts of the state. Dr. Yasuhiko Hotta, talked about Circular Economy opportunities and challenges for the application of Extended Producer Responsibility. He said many plastics-related studies point out that Asia is the hot spot of plastic pollution. He also said that recycling policy needs industrial infrastructure and technical capacity to handle recyclable materials and market to create green jobs is need of the hour. He talked about Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) which is one of the advanced ways to promote governmental initiatives.
Shri Mahendra Singh Tanwar IAS, Hon’ble Commissioner Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) talked about the public-private partnerships in plastic waste management and EPR. He said that the Municipal Corporation thought of the concept of Plastic Tourism. Mr. Zack H Abdi, Managing Director Provectus Medalist, said they started community engagements in Dubai and have started collecting used cooking oil from the households.
Mr. Kajal Debnath, Chief Regulatory Officer at DFM Foods Ltd. briefed about initiatives India is taking in terms of environmental committed to the world. He emphasized the need of teaching plastic waste management at the grassroots level. Mr. Prabhakar Mishra, Associate Director of Food Regulatory Affairs Prophetic vanamel said that the industry plays a very critical role in Soul Segregation. Mr. Anurag Tiwari, Co-Founder of Rekart Innovations Pvt. Ltd. expressed that in the Northern Region, each & every state has stood by its responsibilities to reduce plastic waste. MOEF, CPCB & SPCB implemented the policy in a stable way leading to the emergence of EPR guidelines. The EPR policy and the Single-use plastic policy needs to be implemented together in order to maintain a proper balance in the reduction & segregation of the plastic waste.
Mr. Ashish Jain, Director of the Indian Pollution Control Board (IPCA) stated that the EPR guidelines came into force, which led to the active participation of the industries. It became a statutory tool for the industries and they started contributing their roles in managing plastic waste. Shri Ravi Prakash, Secretary Municipal Committee Gharaunda Distt Karnal expressed that they are trying to bring awareness regarding the segregation issue amongst the people. He also said that he has made agreements with some groups of private people and visited different localities to teach the people how to separate the dry & wet waste by performing an act ” Kura Kachra Dawn” for 15 days. In Spite of this, they have also distributed nearly 16000 dustbins in the cities so that they can keep the dry & wet waste separately. They have also made an agreement with the Rekart agency where they provide them with plastic waste on a monthly basis.
This was followed by the last session of the conference addressed by Shri S.P. Subudhi IFS, Member Secretary of Uttarakhand State Pollution Control Board, Shri K. Ramesh Kumar (IFS), Member Secretary of Jammu & Kashmir State Pollution Control Board, Mr. Amrendra Kumar, Vice-President of Ramky & Whole Time Director Ramky-ARM, Mr. Paras Gupta, Director of EPR & Sustainability GEM Enviro Management. The event was brought to an end with a Vote of Thanks by WeCare CEO Mr. Kamal Sharma.
To ensure a wide range of viewership, Dialogue Series was live-streamed on Youtube where the large number of participants witnessed the event.
