Amid 'Make in India', Maharashtra plastic ban will wipe out businesses and scores of jobs: Manufacturers

The plastic ban in Maharashtra has left manufacturers in a state of confusion, owing to, in their words, a lack of clarity in the rules. On 23 March, the Maharashtra state government banned the manufacture, use, storage, distribution, sale, import and transportation of a wide range of plastic items by a notification. However, the ban on single-use plastic came into effect only on 23 June. Small retailers complained, and, on 27 June, the government relaxed the ban on plastic usage, allowing mom-and-pop stores to use plastic bags. The relaxation will be applicable for plastic carry bags above 50 microns. However, this relaxation is only for the next three months. The association of retail traders has assured the government of coming up with a recycling plan. Small retailers have submitted a proposal that will see them collect plastic bags on paying 50 paise per bag to the consumer, said Maharashtra’s environment minister Ramdas Kadam. 23 June’s ban covers all kinds of plastic bags, irrespective of their thickness, tea cups, glasses, thermocol glasses, thermocol used for decoration, plastic containers used in hotels to parcel food , and even spoons. The ban prescribes a Rs 5,000 fine for first-time offenders and a Rs 10,000 fine for second-time offenders. Those who violate the ban for the third time will face a fine of Rs 25,000, along with three-months’ imprisonment. [caption id=“attachment_4579381” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Civic workers inspect shops following the plastic ban in Maharashtra. PTI.[/caption] Reacting to the ban, Hiten Bheda, President, All India Plastic Manufacturers Association (AIPMA) said there is no clarity on what is single use plastic. Bheda pointed out to the Indian habit of reusing articles. Plastic containers in which food is packed in restaurants, for instance, or containers in which goods are sold, like yoghurt, are reused. “Why can’t the government define what it means by single use plastic articles,” he asked. ‘We have done our bit’ The AIPMA said they have attempted to educate the public by installing waste bins for disposing plastic at crowded areas like Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbadevi, Gaondevi Chowpatty, Nair Hospital, Bombay Central station, Siddhi Vinayak, Haji Ali, Mahalaxmi temple and Juhu Chowpatty. They have put up blue bins for dry  waste and green for wet waste. “This is what we have been doing for months. Now, this ban is hurting the industry,” according to Kaushik Sanghavi, a plastic manufacturer. A plastic ban has repeatedly surfaced, albeit in bits and spurts. The government, way back in 2005, banned plastic carry bags below-50 microns (thickness). However, the implementation of that ban has not been up to the mark, the plastics lobby said. The continued usage of below-50 micron bags triggered June’s plastic ban, opined Bheda. “Why penalise us for what the unorganised players do?" Alternatives? Across Maharashtra, there are over five lakh kirana shops and around eight lakh to nine lakh small merchants who sell food items in plastic bags. They buy products in bulk, pack them themselves and put them up for sale. The government, they argue, banned plastic without offering an alternative. Rajesh Shah runs a kirana store in Mulund and he has started packing goods in brown paper bags. But he cannot pack heavy items in them. With the government having temporarily relaxed the usage of plastic bags for kiranas, he is still worried. “What do I do after three months?” The government has stated the reason behind the ban. But manufacturers want to know as to what solution the regime in Mumbai can now offer, post the ban on single-use plastic and the usage of a number of plastic items. The government has advocated the use of paper bags. But paper bags are not the answer, said plastic manufacturers. “The government should come out with an alternative for plastic usage,” said Saunil Shah, a plastic manufacturer. Kaushik Sanghavi, who has been in the business of plastic manufacturing for over two decades, makes bags, including ziplock bags, for primary packaging.  He debunked the argument that a use-and-throw culture is harming the environment. Good quality plastic bags are constantly reused. “Ziplock bags and packaging bags are reused almost 99 percent of the time. When the government comes out with rules banning plastics, it impacts business,” he reiterated. Plastic recycling “Maharashtra generates over 1,200 tonnes of plastic waste per day, but we don’t know how much of it is recycled,” said Kadam, listing the ills of the usage of the material. The minister said he is skeptical about claims by private companies who said they intend to recycle plastic. The issue also assumes significance because of irresponsible littering, said Bheda. “Waste is not segregated at the household level, which is then transported by the municipal authorities who do not have the mechanism for recycling, destroying or decomposing waste. On all these fronts, the state cuts a sorry figure,” he said. Going forward, all polyethylene terephthalate or PET bottle manufacturers, producers, sellers and traders under the ‘extended producers and sellers/traders responsibility’ will have to develop a ‘buyback depository mechanism’ with a predefined buyback price printed specifically on each bottle. Manufacturers said they haven’t fully understood as to why the government has put the onus of disposal of bags on them.  The state has enough recycling plants for plastic, they said. There is no need for plastic units to set up recycling plants, they added Bheda suggested that the government take stakeholders into confidence and work towards a solution. “We have urged the state government to drop the idea of banning plastic products and work jointly with all stakeholders. AIPMA is ready to provide all technical support in plastic waste management. Currently, about 90 per cent of all PET bottles are recycled in the country,” he said. Whither Make in India Manufacturers said that they have been engaging with the government and informing them that the issue at hand is not with the production of plastic but about waste management. “We have been engaging with the government and telling them that what needs focused attention is the issue of waste management. Banning is not a solution and instead the government should take all stakeholders into confidence for a workable solution,” Shah said. Industry-wide losses The ban imposed by Maharashtra from 23 June has hit the industry very hard and the plastic industry is staring at a loss of Rs 15,000 crore, leaving nearly three lakh people jobless overnight," Plastic Bags Manufacturers Association of India (PBMAI) General Secretary Neemit Punamiya told news agency PTI . Nearly 2,500 members of the association are left with no option but to shut shop following the ban, he said, terming the ban as “discriminatory”. Industry insiders said the job losses from the ban will impact Maharashtra’s GDP. [caption id=“attachment_4258857” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI.[/caption] On the one hand, the government talks of ‘Make in India’ and creating jobs, and, on the other, imposes a ban that ultimately impacts manufacturing, which provides jobs to everyone – from the factory owner to the rag picker. The ban will impact around 10,000 manufacturing units that include, manufacturing, printing, and other related units. With this ban, around three to four lakh people across the value chain will be affected, including allied manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Earlier, Haren Sanghavi, an AIPMA member, told the PTI that the plastics industry is a sun-rise industry having 55,000 processing companies, 20,000 recycling units, employing 55 lakh people directly and over 70 lakh indirectly, including rag-pickers and waste collectors. “Banning plastics will cause mass unemployment and de-industrialisation,’ he told the news agency. Repaying debt The ban could trigger an increase in banks’ bad loans, from the plastic sector, PTI reported. While retailers across the financial capital have said heavy fines for violating the ban has made it difficult for them to run their businesses and has forced them to to turn away many customers. On their part, consumers have complained about the inconvenience-caused and aren’t sure if the ban makes sense. Kaushik Sanghavi has invested around Rs 3 crore in machinery for which he has taken a bank loan. “How am I to pay back the loan when the situation around plastic manufacturing is so uncertain in the state?” He has not fired any of his employees because ‘its too early to take that call’, he said. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that he would not allow any plastic manufacturer to migrate to other states. But, if the situation impacts business and livelihoods, Sanghavi said he will have to move production to other states, where the policy is friendlier to manufacturers and the industry. The government has spent money to propagate its ‘say no to plastic’ campaign but has hardly spent any man-hours to figure out solutions, particularly for waste management. The government attributes responsibility to everyone in value chain – the manufacturer, distributor, retailer, and end-user. “But what about civic authorities? Don’t they have a mandate to ensure effective waste management?” questioned Sanghavi.