SHIMLA: Large number of producers, importers, and brand owners in Himachal Pradesh are yet to be registered for an effective plastic waste management in the state. The state has made some beginning to bring them on board for the first time.
NGOs including IMI are raising concern over the plastic menace in the mountain states that has assumed alarming proportions. They have been pressing upon the states to bring producers, importers, brand owners on board, taking, punitive action against the violators by implementing the Extended Producer Responsibility(EPR).
The slogans like "Take back your trash" are echoing in nook and cranny of the Himalayan states as the civil society groups have taken the battle right into the enemy's camp- primary polluters of the mountains.
The recent spate of flash floods caused by the heavy rains in the state including Shimla city have exposed how trash is being dumped in the hill slopes and streams and Nallah that lead to blockages of drains and water channels leading to landslides and mud floods.
It is not only Himachal Pradesh even All mountain States in the Indian Himalaya region have to bring all stakeholders onboard asking them to take back their trash.
ntegrated Mountain Initiative(IMI) high level team had also met the Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu recently and took the matter with him.
It was at CM's initiate that the department brought the key stakeholders on board and convened a crucial meeting today, August 24, 2023.
Representatives from Action Alliance for Recycling Beverage Cartons (AARC), Pet Packaging Association for Clean Environment (PACE), and Waste Efficient Collection and Recycling Efforts (WE Care) congregated to discuss strategies for better plastic waste management in the state.
The meeting highlighted the urgency to register all brand owners and plastic material producers in Himachal Pradesh. Presently, 30 such entities have completed registration, while a significant number remain unregistered.
An important focal point of the meeting was the implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
The discussions revealed that Plastic Waste Processors operating in the state need to be registered across all districts.
This initiative aims to increase accountability among producers, importers, and brand owners, urging them to register on a centralized portal developed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change in collaboration with the Central Pollution Control Board.
To ensure transparency, the regional officers of HP State Pollution Control Board will verify the accuracy of plastic waste credits concerning the waste generated by producers, importers, and brand owners in Himachal Pradesh.
