The United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) Japan, the Action Alliance for Recycling Beverage Cartons (AARC), and the 3R WASTE Foundation altogether, organised a webinar titled "Beverage Cartons Recycling Practices and Ecosystem for a Circular Economy: Solutions, Updates, and Challenges", which was held recently. The event hosted renowned industry experts like AARC members, students, and environmental enthusiasts from all across the globe namely Korea, Tanzania, Netherlands amongst others.
The prestigious event featured some of the acclaimed industry experts from the field of sustainability. The webinar was jointly moderated by Dr. Kulwant Singh, advisor, Sustainable NRM & Productivity Enhancement Project and Dr. N.B. Mazumdar, International waste management expert. Opening the event, Mr. Kamlesh Kholiya from Tetra Pak Pvt. Ltd, shared some insights on the existing ecosystem for recycling used cartons and providing a comprehensive overview of the steps taken by Tetra Pak. Later in the discussion, Mr. Kholiya shed light upon a key finding from a study conducted by IFEU, which revealed that beverage cartons have a climate impact of 36 (kg CO2-eq/1000 L), significantly lower than glass, which has a climate impact of 416 indicating that beverage cartons are one of the most favorable alternatives.
At the webinar, Dr. Anupam Khajuriya, representing the United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD) in Japan, highlighted that recycling is just one aspect of the broader circular economy. Dr. Khajuriya further explained various aspects encompassed within this paradigm, including design, production, distribution, consumption (use, reuse, repair), collection, and recycling.While detailing the recycling process of the Used Beverage Cartons (UBC), Dr. Anupam highlighted that paper cartons have lower environmental load and recycling a 1000 ml of paper cartons reduces CO2 emissions by 23.4 g. Further, she spoke about UNCRD's commitment to promoting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across all regional nations.
Contributing her thoughts to the webinar, Dr. Anne Scheinberg, Solid Waste Adviser at WASTE, Advisers on Urban Environment and Development, Netherlands emphasized the paramount importance of the informal sector in waste management. Expressing her perspective further, Dr. Scheinberg added that true recyclability of a product can only be achieved when there is a demand for the recycled product within the market. Summarizing her thoughts, Dr. Scheinberg underscored the pressing need for the beverage carton industry to actively promote and stimulate the demand for its recyclable products to fully realize their potential.
The final session was delivered by Mr. K.D. Bharadwaj, Regional Director - Environment and Energy & Group Head- International Services at the National Productivity Council. He discussed the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in India and shed light on different EPR practices implemented in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. Mr. Bharadwaj also highlighted the key distinctions within the EPR framework and drew attention to the foremost challenge of formalizing the informal sector in India. Later, Mr. Bharadwaj recommended augmenting the roles and authorities of municipalities in EPR management.
Closing the webinar, Dr. Praveen Aggarwal, CEO of AARC, extended gratitude to all the panelists for sharing their insightful experiences during the webinar. Dr. Aggarwal spoke about the efforts made by the industry and AARC members in creating an ecosystem for the collection and recycling of beverage cartons in different states of India wherein now 50% of the UBC waste is already recycled, while assisting the Central Government in policy formulation to address waste management in the country. Addressing the question from the international participants on how to minimize End of Life (EOL) of the carton wastes, Dr. Aggarwal recommended that a separate category for UBC within the PWM rules or a subcategory within Category III of Multi Layered Packaging for recycling MLP's will go a long way in minimizing EOL and upscaling the carton waste. He further added that India now has a nationwide common Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program, and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has taken a progressive step creating a centralized portal that shall bring much desired transparency in the system.