Anil Joshi (IFS) Member Secretary Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board represented Himachal Pradesh in 3rd Plastic recycling conference Asia 2023 held at Mumbai during 26-28 April 2023 and shared the status of Himachal Pradesh in ensuring scientific disposal of waste management including plastic waste management (recyclable and non-recyclable). Shri Joshi also participated in the panel discussion wherein he has given his views on regulation of plastic waste with respect to current policies and changes which are required to make the existing waste management more efficient.
He further opined that Himachal Pradesh has always been the pioneer state in dealing with plastic waste management wherein the State had come up with the legislation namely Himachal Pradesh Non-biodegradable Garbage Control Act, way back in 1995. Since then the State has taken lead on plastic waste management by banning all type of Plastic Carry Bags in 2009, banning other single use plastic items in 2018 even before Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India’s notification of 2021. The State also took lead in implementing the innovative Plastic buy back policy during 2019 to deal with non-recyclable plastic waste, and also in implementing the EPR guidelines for managing plastic packing waste.
Shri Joshi also highlighted the challenges being faced by the state in managing the scientific disposal of solid and plastic waste along with gaps in the existing policy. He stressed upon issues being faced such as not meeting 100 % segregation of waste, collection and transportation in hilly regions, and also the need of conducting compositional survey of waste in urban local bodies (ULBs). Further he also pointed out that there is urgent need of putting ULBs in loop of EPR Mechanism and boosting the implementation of Plastic Buy Back Policy of the State for no-recyclable plastic waste. He further stressed to bridge existing gap in EPR mechanism in procurement of EPR Certificate with respect to State-specific targets for Producers, Importers and Brand Owners (PIBOs).
In the end, he had formal meetings with the entrepreneurs dealing with plastic waste recycling and sought their investments for the State of Himachal Pradesh.
