Indore which is synonymous with cleanliness in the country has added another feather to its cap. Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has become the first urban body in the country to earn EPR credit. On this achievement, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today India is moving forward with new thinking and new approach. Along with economic development, it is also strengthening the ecological balance. As per the vision of Prime Minister Shri Modi, efforts are being made to promote circular economy in Madhya Pradesh as well. The campaign of Indore Municipal Corporation to get rid of single use plastic and solid waste management efforts will inspire the entire state. Chief Minister Shri Chouhan has congratulated all the residents of Indore, administrative officers and all the employees of the civic body on this achievement. The Chief Minister said that success of this effort of public participation is a matter of pride for the entire state.
After getting carbon credits, the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has taken forward the concept of ‘Waste to Wealth’ by becoming the first ULB in India to be registered on the EPR portal of the Central Pollution Control Board. Today IMC has become the first ULB in India to earn EPR credits. The achievement of earning EPR credits reflects the successful implementation of Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016 (PWM) and EPR policy by IMC. This innovation to earn EPR credits is another powerful step towards moving from linear economy to circular economy and sustainable development.Indore model of public participation creates record
Public participation is the USP of the Indore city model. Indore Municipal Corporation has launched intensive awareness campaigns like ‘Main Hoon Jholadhari Indori’, ‘Plastic Heist Gang’, ‘Plastic Premier League’ and ‘Halla Bol Drive’ etc. to ensure citizen’s participation regarding single use plastic ban. Indore city generates more than 1162 metric tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) per day. With massive awareness campaign and concerted efforts of IMC and its stakeholders, source segregation of waste into 6 types of waste i.e. plastic waste, non-plastic waste, e-waste, household hazardous waste and wet waste in domestic, commercial, industrial institutions etc. has been successfully implementated.
Approximately 163.8 metric tonnes of plastic is generated in the Indore Municipal Corporation area daily, which is being collected segregated manner from the source through door-to-door collection and bulk collection system. It is then transported to centralized and decentralized material recovery facilities without any human intervention. 100 percent of the transported waste is treated on the same day. Along with this, IMC monitors the manufacture, storage, use and supply chain of Ban Plastic within the city for the successful implementation of PWM Rules 2016 and EPR Policy. IMC has set up a special task force deploying 19 inspection teams at the zone level to report violations of norms within municipal limits. The inspection teams make regular visits on daily basis to various areas like commercial areas, tourist areas, public places, vegetable, fruit and meat markets, industrial areas etc. They report violations during inspections and confiscate plastics by imposing fines on violators. IMC transport the seized plastic to the 400 TPD capacity material recovery facility of the empanelled agency set up at Deoguradia. IMC has also entered into MoU with this agency for earning and sharing of EPR credits. IMC earned its first installment of EPR credit against 8 MT of seized plastic. The value of EPR credit earned by IMC through empaneled agency for Material Recovery Facility (MRF) under PPP mode is Rs.8,100/-.
It is noteworthy that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change mandates producers’ responsibilities through the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) under the Plastic Waste Management Rules 2016. The term producer collectively refers to industrial establishments and persons engaged in the manufacture or import of carry bags, multilayered packaging, plastic sheets, etc. It includes individuals and industries using plastic sheets, covers made of plastic sheets, and multilayered packaging for packaging or wrapping the commodity.
