PET BOTTLES occupy the maximum space in Pankaj Samel's knapsack.

This 30-year-old is no rag picker but the president of Sahyadri Bhraman Trekkers (SBT) a Dombivlibased trekking group that takes up clean-up drives in forts around the state. "Tourist leftovers mainly comprise of plastic mineral water or soft drink bottles," said Samel.

The city needs many more like Samel, if it is needed to be free of PET bottles, a growing environment hazard in every consumerist society . As per industry estimates, nearly 60,000 metric tonnes of PET consumption is by non-alcoholic beverage industry every year, with Mumbai being one the biggest consumers. With only 60 per cent collected back for recycling, it leaves about 14,000 MT PET bottles still in the open to choke anything from water supplies to the soil. "PET is does not degrade at all and if continues to pile on it doesn't allow other substances to decompose," said Dr Aditi Deshpande, research scientist on environmental chemistry with Kasturba Hospital.

Companies are trying overcome the collection problem by offering more compensation to the rag pickers. "A rag-picker sells PET for Rs 10 to Rs 14 per kg. Now the entire chain has understood that it is profitable to recycle plastic bottles," says Pravin Agarwal, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, Coca Cola, India. Coca Cola has been running awareness programmes to highlight profitability in recycling plastic waste in 100 cities across India, he claimed.

But no authentic estimates are available about how much of PET is actually getting recycled. "The biggest challenge is to estimate the amount of plastic waste that gets back to the recycling units. Because it is a profitable process, the rag picker or kabadis are tight-lipped about the business to hoodwink taxmen," said Vidyadhar Walawalkar general secretary of Enviro-Vigil, a city-based NGO.

To make the collection chain more effective, Walawalkar would soon be approaching the government to canalise collection of these bottles. "The government should make it mandatory for companies using plastic bottles to charge Rs 2 over the MRP as recycling surcharge which would be reimbursed to the buyer when he deposits the empty bottle back to the retailer," he said, adding, "the manufacturer must print the procedure, the way it happens in the western countries."

URL: http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=04_06_2008_002_003&typ=0&pub=264