Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has clarified the measures taken for reduction of plastic waste generation and compliance of Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rules dated 12.08.2021. Key focus areas include source segregation of waste; segregated collection and transportation; processing of segregated waste; setting up of Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in all ULBs; continuous awareness generation for reducing Single Use Plastic (SUP) and use of substitute products. In addition, the following initiatives have been taken:
(i) Additional Central Assistance (ACA) to States and Union Territories (UTs) is released for establishing Solid Waste Management (SWM) projects for processing of all kinds of waste,
(ii) A ‘Plastic Waste Management Advisory’ has been developed capturing the plastic waste generation, plastic waste management rules and various ways to manage plastic waste through reduce, reuse, recycle and recovery techniques;
(iii) ‘Swachh Survekshan’ and ‘Star Rating Protocol’ have been introduced which have been aligned with Plastic Waste Management (amendment) Rules 2021 to encourage cities to phase out single-use plastic, etc.
