NE BUSINESS BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, FEB 26
EcoEx, a start-up in the plastic waste management sector, has launched India’s first digital marketplace to facilitate the exchange of plastic credit certificates and strengthen the plastic recycling infrastructure, a release said.
As per the Uniform Framework for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR, under Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016) released by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, plastic producers, importers, and brand owners (PIBOs) that use plastic for packaging are accountable for managing the end waste, the statement added.
Launching the EcoEx platform, Nimit Agarwal, Founder, EcoEx said, “Born out of an idea to foster a digital evolution for a cleaner tomorrow and aligned to the Swachh Bharat Mission, EcoExaims to create a sustainable digital ecosystem for the stakeholders of the plastic waste management value chain to undertake secure & mutually beneficial plastic credit certificate transactions from anywhere, anytime. The added advantage of recycling plastic is that it emits lesser CO2 as compared to producing virgin plastic. EcoEx being pro-recycling ensures that maximum plastic is collected from the environment. EcoEx by way of incentivising recycling ensures maximum plastic waste is collected and recycled. This, in turn, helps save marine life by ensuring lesser plastic being dumped into oceans.”
The revised EPR draft guidelines now allow PIBOs to meet their compliance targets by buying ‘plastic credits’ from accredited companies that recycle packaging or co-process the plastic packaging waste. The marketplace launched by EcoExbrings together all the players in the plastic waste ecosystem to transparently trade plastic credit certificates. This model has three benefits: first, it ensures that plastic waste EPR compliance is met by brands in the most effective manner; second, it ensures that the plastic waste is ethically collected, transported, and put to the end of life and third, it incentives recyclers by giving them the monetary benefit for the recycled quantity and co-processors by helping them realise a better price. All these factors in turn will support the government to implement the plastic credits model for efficient EPR compliance, and eventually lead to the possibility of living in a cleaner environment.
According to a study by Un-Plastic Collective (co-founded by the Confederation of Indian Industry, United Nations Environment Programme, and WWF-India), India generates 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste annually. Nearly 40% of this waste remains uncollected, as per the Ministry of Environment. A large quantity of this waste is ending up in landfills and oceans. This is due to inept recycling infrastructure development. Through the marketplace, EcoEx envisions a cleaner tomorrow by guiding India’s waste management industry through a digitized process of plastic credit exchange and by bringing together all players in the ecosystem at one common point. By introducing this digital platform, EcoEx is enabling the nation-wide implementation of the EPR.
