Maharashtra Will Now Pay You To Return Milk Poly Bags In Bid To Reduce Plastic Waste!

In light of the increasing plastic pollution in the state and its harmful effects on the environment, the Maharashtra state government last year came up with a strict regulation banning disposable, single-use plastic and plastic products in the state.

Many hoteliers also moved to deliver food in steel containers to tap on the usage of plastic boxes used for food packaging. Several products were also exempted from the list of banned products, one of which was plastic pouches used to pack milk.

Dedicated to weed out plastics from the ecosystem completely, the Maharashtra government yet again, came up with a path-breaking mandate.

The milk vendors are now strictly instructed to implement the buyback scheme for milk poly packs. The vendors in the state will now have to collect all the pouches and send them to the manufacturers for recycling.

According to NDTV, a refundable surcharge of 50 paise per plastic packet will be returned by the retailers when the customer returns empty milk packets after consumption.

Environment minister Ramdas Kadam was quoted as saying, “Plastic waste amounting to 1,200 ton per day was being generated. This has reduced by 600 ton. We have managed to bring down this waste by 50%.”

He added that milk producers would implement the refundable deposit-based buyback scheme within a month.

“There will be no hike in rates for consumers. This will be implemented in a month. It will ensure that 31-ton plastic and 1 crore poly packs will not be strewn on the road daily,” Kadam claimed.

There are several other parameters that might give this brilliant scheme a kickback but if the consumers and retailers cooperate with the government, this step will encourage recycling of the plastic milk packet, hence reducing plastic pollution in the second most populous state of the country.

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