Mumbai, June 15: The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has issued fresh guidelines for plastic units importing plastic scrap/waste. A new condition has been imposed through a public notice (No 392/97), under which imports will be allowed only if there is no effluent generation in recycling the scrap or waste.

It has been found that some of the plastic waste imported includes material that generates effluents in the recycling process. After consulting the department of chemicals and petrochemicals and other ministries, it has been decided to redefine the description of plastic waste which allows imports of only virgin plastic scrap.

Sources at the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) in Delhi indicated that the board was forced to act following a court directive to curb the malpractices adopted by a select set of importers who were picking up plastic waste from various developed countries.

In many western countries, especially in the US, parties cleaning up plastic waste are paid by those who generate it. This scrap was than imported into India for recycling purposes.

The Supreme Court has recently been issuing orders to prevent excessive pollution and damage to the ecosystem, and this could have been one of the main reasons for the DGFT's move on the import of plastic waste.

The public notice gives the new definition for importable plastic waste thus: ``Plastic scrap/waste constitutes those fractions of plastic generated by various plastic processing operations or those fractions generated in the production process of plastics in a plant which have not been put to any use whatsoever and as such can be termed as virgin or new material which can be recycled unto viable commercial products...but without involving any process of cleaning, whereby effluents are generated.''

While issuing the new guidelines, the government has also defined the forms of plastic items that will be permitted. The list include compressed films in cut condition, cut tape soft waste, flakes, powders and pieces of irregular shapes (not exceeding nine sq inches). The notice says that plastic scrap/waste in any other form than prescribed ``shall not be ordinarily'' allowed to be imported.

A Special Licensing Committee (SLC) will be set up by the DGFT headquarters in New Delhi to monitor the issuance of licences. Each application will be received by the DGFT which will forward it to the department of chemicals and petrochemicals and ministry of environment and forests for their comments.

The facility will be offered only on an actual user basis, which means that the importer has to be a registered manufacturer of plastic articles made of recyclable waste and also has the facility for recycling it. Such units will be required to possess clear pollution certificates from the concerned State Pollution Boards besides a capacity certificate for their respective plants, according to the notice.

Each consignment of plastic waste imported will have to be accompanied by a certificate confirming the description/definition of it from the factory where it was generated and imported.

The customs authorities will draw a sample from all consignments individually and send them for testing to the prescribed laboratories belonging to the Central Institute of Plastic Engineering and Technology (Cipet). These labs, in turn, will analyse the samples and certify their eligibility for import.

The notice provides for action against errant importers in case there is any violation of any of the norms prescribed in accordance with the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act.

While banning imports of toxic plastic waste, the new policy allows free imports of PET bottle waste/scrap as per the earlier norms. Any imports of plastic scrap, except PET bottle scrap, by 100 per cent EOUs and EPZs shall continue to be governed by para 94 of the Exim Policy, but the parameters for its imports prescribed in the new notice shall be kept in view by the Board of Approval concerned, the notice said.

The list of competent labs under CIPET includes the offices at Madras, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Imphal, Lucknow and Mysore.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.