India: Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2024

 

India has published an amendment to its Plastic Waste Management Rules.

Many changes are implemented into the Rules, e.g. new definitions:

biodegradable plastics, means plastics, other than compostable plastics, which undergoes degradation by biological processes in specific environment such as soil, landfill, sewage sludge, fresh water, marine, without leaving any micro plastics or visible or distinguishable or toxic residue, which has adverse environment impact;

importer, means a person who imports for commercial use, any plastic packaging or  any commodity with plastic packaging or carry bags or plastic sheets or like material, or plastic raw material including in the form of resin or pellets, or intermediate material to be used for manufacturing plastic packaging such as films or preforms;

manufacturer, means and includes a person engaged in production of plastic raw material, including compostable plastics and biodegradable plastics;

producer, means a person engaged in manufacturing of plastic packaging; and, includes a person engaged in manufacture of intermediate material to be used for manufacturing plastic packaging, and also the person engaged in contract manufacturing of products using plastic packaging or through other similar arrangements for a brand owners;

Moreover, some new obligations are introduced, like:

•   the manufacturer shall not sell or provide or arrange plastic to be used as raw material to a producer or to a seller not registered under these rules.
•   the manufacture of carry bags and commodities covered under sub rule (3) shall be permitted to be made from compostable plastics or biodegradable plastics subject to mandatory marking and labelling laid down under these rules and the regulations of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India for food contact applications. The manufacturers of compostable plastic or biodegradable plastic carry bags or commodities permitted under the rules, shall obtain a certificate from the Central Pollution Control Board before marketing or selling.
•   The manufacturer of commodities made from compostable plastics or biodegradable plastics shall report the quantity of such commodities introduced in the market and pre-consumer waste generated to the Central Pollution Control Board.
•   Every manufacturer of commodities made from plastic or part thereof shall ensure processing of the preconsumer plastic waste generated in the form of reject or discard material at the stage of manufacturing and such manufacturer shall report to the State Pollution Control Board or Pollution Control Committee concerned.
•   and others.

To find out more about environmental compliance regulations in India, please contact the Product Compliance Institute directly.