India announces the draft amendment of Plastic Waste Management Rules 
On March 11, 2021, India’s Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change announced the draft “Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2021” to amend “Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016” and is conducting 60-day comment period. Comments on objectives and proposals may be sent in writing to the following address or submitted online to the email address（satyendra.kumar07@nic.in / amit.love@nic.in）.
the Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change,
Indira Paryavaran Bhawan, Jor Bagh Road, Aliganj, New Delhi-110003
In this draft, the following amendments are proposed.
- Add brand owners and plastic waste processors (e.g. recyclers, co-processors) to the scope of application
- Add the definition of terms, “non-woven plastic bag”, “plastic waste processing”, “single-use plastic item”, “thermoset plastic” and “thermoplastic”.
- In article 4, the provision that the thickness of carry bags made of virgin or recycled plastic must be “50 microns or more” is revised to “120 microns or more after September 30, 2021”.
- The above thickness rule does not apply to compostable plastic carry bags and “commodities”.
- In article 4, newly add the provision that “Each sheet of non-woven plastic carry bag shall not be less than 60 (GSM per square meter) or 240 microns in thickness with effect from September 30, 2021”.
- The manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of following single-use plastic commodities shall be prohibited from January 1, 2022: Ear buds with plastic sticks, plastic sticks for balloons, plastic flags, candy sticks, ice-cream sticks, polystyrene (Thermocol) for decoration
- The manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of following single-use plastic commodities shall be prohibited from July 1, 2022:
single-use plastic (including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene) items: plates, cups, glasses, cutlery such as forks, spoons, knives, straw, trays, wrapping/packing films around sweet boxes; invitation cards; and cigarette packets, plastic/PVC banners less than 100 micron, stirrers.
the above provision shall not apply to commodities (including carry bags) made of compostable plastic material
- In article 11 (marking and labeling), “plastic packaging” is added to the scope, and the labeling information is revised as follows.
name, registration number of the manufacturer/ producer/ brand-owner and thickness in case of carry bag and plastic packaging used by the brand owner ;
name and registration number of the manufacturer in case of multilayered packaging (excluding multilayered packaging used for imported goods); and
name and certificate number of producer [Rule 4(h)] in case of carry bags made from compostable plastic.
The draft can be downloaded from the following URL (in Hindi and English).
