CPCB plans to check violations in plastic waste trading regime

• The Central Pollution Control Board has begun a national audit of nearly 800 plastic-waste recyclers across the country,
• After it emerged that four firms in Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Gujarat had issued nearly 6,00,000 fake certificates under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programme.

Highlights:

• The EPR scheme mandates businesses that use plastic packaging material to recycle a certain percentage of the plastic used in the previous two years. On July 14, The Hindu had carried a report on the issue and on the chances of many more fake certificates having been generated.
• Separately, the Board has also filed a complaint with the Delhi Police against unknown “hackers”, for having allegedly stolen several thousand EPR credits from its online portal. The Delhi Police is learnt to have lodged a first information report (FIR) and is investigating the matter.
• A senior official of the CPCB, who declined to be identified, explained that fake certificates were a result of “teething issues” because this was the first full year since the scheme was implemented and that there could have been a “lack of clarity” among recyclers on the mechanics of the scheme.
• “This is a paradigm shift. All these years, companies had no mandatory targets and were alien to the concept of an online tracking system that showed how many certificates were generated and traded. While we are aware of the problem, it is akin to - say the early years of implementing GST (Goods and Services Tax) or filing Income Tax returns online. We will be keeping a track of EPR-filings by companies and in case of suspicious filings, we will be keeping a hawk’s eye. Errant companies will face heavy fines,” the official told The Hindu.
• The official said an investigation has been on since last October. In the meantime, security features of the EPR-trading platform have been enhanced which required a major overhaul of the portal. Only after the investigation will it be clear how many companies traded in stolen certificates. The fines for the guilty would be worth “hundreds of crores,” the official said, though recovering these sums is usually a long-drawn process.

Prelims Takeaway

• CPCB
• EPR