On the invitation of the Central Environmental Authority (CEA), the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) and BSL took part in a meeting to discuss the implementation of EPR for Plastic Waste management on January 6, 2021, at the CEA. The main purpose of this dialogue was to examine the pros and cons of two major EPR instruments: Product Take-back Requirement and Deposit Refund System. The Managing Director, Snackings (Pvt) Ltd shared a proposed Digital Deposit Refund System (DRS). As per the system proposed, PET bottles will carry a QR Code and consumers will be able to obtain a refund by handing over the used bottle to nominated outlets. For the return of these bottles, it is proposed to set up 5,000 outlets throughout the country. The consumers can return the bottles to these outlets and obtain a refund of LKR 10/-. On top of that, an EPR fee will be levied from brand owners to set up and maintain the system. During this discussion, it was emphasized that the country should focus on bottle-to-bottle recycling as it happens in other countries.
Mr. Chandrarathna Vithanage, Senior Assistant Secretary-General, CCC explained that CCC has facilitated the EPR dialogue for over 3 years and come up with the EPR Roadmap, proposing a Mandatory Reporting and Collect Back model which will assign a collect back target to brand owners based on their annual packaging consumption. The development of this EPR Roadmap was done adopting a broad, consultative process. CCC also conducted a Perception Survey on EPR through which, it was revealed that over 90% of the private sector stakeholders are in favour of this model and expressed willingness to implement it. He pointed out that plastic waste is an issue of national importance, and therefore it must be tackled diligently keeping national interests for environmental conservation in mind.
Mr. Roshan Salinda, Program Manager, BSL commended positive elements of DRS and acknowledged that DRS has delivered laudable results in raising PET collection and recovery rates in developed countries such as Germany, Norway, Denmark, and Lithuania. However, he pointed out that in no developing country where informal waste collection systems exist, has introduced DRS for PET packaging. When DRS is introduced, valuable waste items like PET, Aluminium cans, and glass will also get collected through the system, affecting the livelihoods of thousands of informal waste collectors, as PET contributes to a sizable portion of the income of informal waste collectors. Also, Sri Lanka’s socio-economic dynamics are not conducive for introducing DRS. As such, since Sri Lanka has a very active waste collection sector, DRS would unlikely be the best EPR model for the country. Citing an OECD report, he mentioned that Product Take Back requirements are the most dominant EPR tool used in the world. Sri Lanka can draw lessons from proposed EPR regulations in India. The main elements of Indian EPR regulations are mandatory registration of producers and recyclers, and targets for plastic waste collection, recycling, and the use of recycled content in packaging. He concluded that introducing DRS would have to be discussed widely with the private sector, as the Collect Back Model is currently being operationalized in the country with private sector agreement.
BSL and CCC teams visited SME member Zero Trash, General Member Eco Spindles to gather further information on the collection and recycling of plastic waste.
The 3rd Project Steering Committee meeting of the CCBO-CCC EPR Pilot Project was held recently under the leadership of the Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and the CEO/Secretary General of the CCC
