Snack packs are non-recyclable
The shining metal-coated packs used to store food products, which we use and discard every day, come with an environmental problem since they cannot be recycled, say experts.
While composite materials such as BOPP polypropylene and metallised polyester are used widely by the food packaging industry, the recycling machinery is not yet equipped to tackle them. As a result, these materials either end up in landfills, or in some cases are taken by thermal plants or cement manufacturing units to use compressed plastic waste blocks as fuel.
W.G. Prasanna Kumar, social scientist at AP Pollution Control Board, said India cannot yet recycle these composites effectively. “They cannot be brought into the cradle-to-grave approach in recycling materials. Besides, the scientific landfill solution is also not available. However, tetrapacks are turned into tissue papers, and composites with metal laminates are used as fuel in cement industry,” he said.
V. Anil Reddy, the president of Andhra Pradesh Plastic Manufacturers Association, said, “Though some companies in India have the technique to recycle composites, it is often unviable to use that technology due to the high cost factor. Till the technology is developed, they (the waste) should be carefully disposed of in either landfills, or used as fuel.”
An effective mechanism to segregate these wastes at the source is also needed, he added.
MD of Ravi Foods Pvt Ltd, Rajinder Agarwal, said, “Companies should ideally move towards taking back the packaging waste and recycling them. But it takes a lot of concerted efforts from both manufacturers and enforcement (bodies), besides public awareness.”
A leading city-based biscuit manufacturer said such waste should be effectively turned into ropes and yarns, or should be used in the construction industry.
To tackle the crisis, Mr Prasanna Kumar suggested levying a “green tax” on people who create such plastics at the source itself.
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