Need of putting Himachal ULBs in loop of EPR & Plastic Buy Back Policy

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh is facing a major Environmental challenge of disposal of non-recyclable plastic waste urgently needed to put urban local bodies in loop of extended producers responsibility mechanism and to adopt plastic buy back policy.
This was stated by Anil Joshi (IFS) Member Secretary Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board represented this hill state in 3rd Plastic recycling conference Asia 2023 held at Mumbai from April 26-28.
Sharing the status of the state in ensuring scientific disposal of waste management
including plastic waste management (recyclable and non-recyclable) he accepted the posing challenge before the state like issues being faced such as not meeting 100 pet cent segregation of waste, collection and transportation in hilly regions, and
also the need of conducting compositional survey of waste in ULBs.
Highlighting the challenges being faced by the state in managing the scientific disposal of solid and plastic waste along with gaps in the existing policy Joshi said that Himachal Pradesh is implementing the EPR guidelines for managing plastic packing waste.
“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).