Bengaluru Recycling Habba: Panel Discussion on Extended Producer Responsibility, Mon 7th Nov, 2:30pm

Nov. 5, 2011 - PRLog -- As part of the Bengaluru Recycling Habba 2011, an informative, thought-provoking and critical panel discussion has been organised to exchange ideas on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in India. The discussion will be moderated by Sajan Poovayya, Managing Partner of Poovayya & Co, and the panel will include environmental heavyweights Almitra Patel, Member of Supreme Court Committee for Solid Waste Management and Dr Sharat Chandra, Former KSPCB Chairman, as well as industry leaders including Mr Jogarao Bhamidipati. Vice President ITC Limited and Mr Manish Patel, Head of Packaging at Himalaya Drug Company.

EPR is potentially powerful and long overdue policy instrument that will hold manufacturers responsible for the environmental and social impacts of their products throughout the whole product system. This includes upstream impacts inherent in the selection of materials for products, impacts from the production process, and downstream impacts from the use and disposal of products.  By making manufacturers responsible for product waste streams, we encourage sustainable product design. It is cheaper and safer to design products that are nonhazardous, more durable, more recyclable.
Hot topics on the agenda will include:  Environmental tax and take back rules; mandatory recycling targets for packaging suppliers; eco-friendly substitutes for non-recyclable packaging to be made mandatory; and mercury pollution prevention.

Myriam Shankar, Project Manager of the Solid Waste Management Round Table, commented:  “There are a lot of issues up for discussion that require urgent attention and action from producers.  For example, lead-based paints have been banned for many years in most countries, but not in India.  In UNICEF sponsored children’s playgrounds in India, however, it is mandatory that the equipment suppliers use only lead free paint; but the very same suppliers then produce equipment for non-UNICEF play areas using the same old toxic lead-based paints.  Why is this? Is it sheer indifference or because there is no blanket legislation to create a level economic playing-field for compliance.  These are the issues we hope to address and go some way to forming a timeline for action.”

The first ever Bengaluru Recycling Habba 2011, aligning with Recycling Week observed internationally, has been organized by The Solid Waste Management Round Table Bengaluru (SWMRT), and supported by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), BBMP and the Karnataka High Court Legal Services Committee.  To find out more visit www.swmrt.com or follow the Recycling Habba updates on Facebook at Bengaluru Recycling Habba 2011 and Twitter @RecyclingHabba.

The SWMRT, organizers of the first Bengaluru Recycling Habba, comprises a group of like-minded organizations and highly skilled individuals who have been working to build awareness of and promote the adoption of best practices in waste management in Government offices, public spaces, homes, offices, industries and educational institutions across Bengaluru.

In just over two years, the SWMRT has made many significant achievements: It has initiated and introduced segregation, recycling, and composting to 25,000 households, saving about 650 tonnes of waste being dumped into landfills; it has trained more than 125 BBMP environment officers; it has created a shift in municipal waste contracts for the city from waste disposal to waste management; through work with the Lok Adalat, it has ensured that the BBMP will allocate Rs 25 Lakhs per ward for dry waste collection centers; and, with intervention from the Lok Adalat, it has ensured the introduction of ID cards for the city’s rag pickers in an effort to make their jobs safer.



Notes to Editors:
Reporters and Photographers welcome at The Chancery, Lavelle Road, at 2:30pm on Monday 7th November.

For further information, please contact:
Julie McGuire      9945691533      juliemcguire@me.com
Pallavi Varma-Patil   9738046841      pallavi.vp@gmail.com
Beula Anthony      9686619775      beula.sophi@gmail.com