Extended Producer Responsibility improve circularity in India’s waste oil management

Extended Producer Responsibility improve circularity in India’s waste oil management

Subject: Environment

Section: Environment law

Context: Union Budget 2023-24, presented by Finance Minister has placed emphasis on sustainable development and a circular economy in India.

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• The country has been pushing on the circularity of the resources for the last two-three- years. The objective is to substitute natural resource consumption with equally valuable waste materials that otherwise would end up in landfills.
• Recently, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has introduced a draft notification on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) on waste oil. Used oil can act as a contaminant as it contains benzene, zinc, cadmium and other impurities that have the potential to pollute freshwater.

Draft notification on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) on waste oil

• EPR is applicable to producers and bulk generators (like industry, railways, transport companies, power transmission companies, etc.), according to the draft notification.
• It recommends the registration of stakeholders, including producers, collection agents, recyclers and waste oil importers, on Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) online portal.
• The notification also talks about the EPR targets of waste oil recycling for producers and the applicable obligations, starting from 2024-25. The target for the base year is set as 10 per cent, which will increase gradually by 10 per cent every year till 2029. After this, the target will be set based on the quantity of lubrication oil sold or imported annually.
• A provision for EPR certificate generation and the computation of the quantity eligible for the EPR certificate is also given.
• The notification also talks about an online portal which CPCB will set up for registration, filing of returns, EPR certificate generation and tracing of oil produced or generated by any registered agency.
• MoEFCC has provided clear demarcations of the responsibilities of producers, waste oil importers, collection agents, recyclers, bulk generators, CPCB, State Pollution Control Boards (SPCB), states or Union Territories, municipalities, local self-governments etc.
• Bureau of Indian Standards is also entrusted with the important responsibility of setting up necessary standards for re-refined oil, which is used by producers of lubricants.
• Environmental compensation has been included in the EPR along with prosecution in case of any agency providing false information for obtaining EPR certificates. Also, the prosecution for non-compliance will be in addition to the environmental compensation.
• CPCB is the designated agency for verifying and auditing the agencies under the EPR notification.
• A steering committee is proposed under the EPR to assess the draft notification’s implementation, monitoring and overall supervision.