Sri Vijaya Puram, June 9: Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) under the Plastic Waste Management Rules mandates Producers, Importers, and Brand Owners—including manufacturers of compostable /biodegradable plastics—to ensure proper processing of their plastic packaging waste through recycling, reuse, or environmentally sound disposal methods (e.g., co-processing, waste-to-energy, plastic-to-oil, roadmaking, industrial composting).
To streamline EPR implementation, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), through the 4th Amendment to the Plastic Waste Management Rules dated February 16, 2022, introduced ‘Guidelines on Extended Producer Responsibility for Plastic Packaging’ (Schedule II).
Accordingly, a Centralized EPR Portal has been developed for registration of Producers, Importers, and Brand Owners (PIBOs) operating in more than two States with the CPCB. Those operating in one or two States/UTs must register with the respective State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs)/ Pollution Control Committee. Plastic Waste Processors (PWPs) must also register on this portal as per Section 13(3) of the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.
As per the latest amendment dated March 14, 2024, the entities who must register on the EPR portal for plastic packaging are manufacturers of plastic raw materials, importers of plastic raw materials, micro & small producers and sellers of plastic raw materials.
All the producers including micro and small categories, importers, brand owners, manufactures/importers/sellers of plastic materials in A&N Islands should register themselves on the centralized EPR Portal developed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Action, as deemed fit under Environment Protection Act, 1986 including levying of Environmental Compensation as per the Guidelines shall be taken against the defaulter.
Definitions as per Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 (as amended) and Link of EPR portal are as under-
Producer: A person engaged in manufacturing plastic packaging, including manufacturing intermediate materials for plastic packaging, and those engaged in contract manufacturing of products using plastic packaging for brand owners.
Manufacturer: A person involved in the production of plastic raw materials, including compostable and biodegradable plastics.
Seller: A person who sells plastic raw materials such as resins, pellets, or intermediate materials used in producing plastic packaging.
Importer: A person who imports, for commercial use, any plastic packaging, commodity with plastic packaging, carry bags, plastic sheets, plastic raw materials (resins or pellets), or intermediate materials for manufacturing plastic packaging.
Brand Owner: A person or company selling any commodity under a registered brand label or trademark.
The link to register in the Centralized EPR portal is:
https://eprplastic.cpcb.gov.in/. Further, the SOP for registration of PIBOs and PWPs can be downloaded respectively in the links provided: