After banning the import of plastic waste in 2019, the Environment Ministry has permitted PET Bottles, as plastic waste, to be imported for processing. The decision to rollback the ban was taken last year after representations by several industries in the business of processing waste said there was too little waste available for them in India and this was causing them financial losses.
An expert committee of the Environment Ministry, last December, had recommended that firms who had applied for permission could import PET Flakes/Bottles up to 50% of their production capacity. Polyethylene Terephthalate bottles are a category of plastic of which nearly 90% of the domestic supply is already recycled.
However, this reprieve has not gone down well with environmentalist groups.
