The commerce and industry ministry has directed e-commerce companies to cut down the use of single-use plastic in the packaging of their products that are sold through these platforms. Recently, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) advised these entities to take up sustainable packaging materials that will lead to reduction in India’s plastic footprint globally.
The plastic used by these companies accounts for 40 per cent of non-fibre plastic. “With an earnest ambition to stop consumption of single-use plastic, these companies are being advised to consider gradually curtailing use of single-use plastic in packaging products being sold through their e-commerce platform,” informed an official who knew about the development.
Talking about the notification, a spokesperson of Amazon said that the company is dedicated to build solutions that will ensure optimal usage of packaging material, reduce waste and create eco-friendly packaging. By leveraging the use of technology, the company is moving towards creating a sustainable supply chain. “We have been relentlessly working on reducing single-use plastic in our supply chain. Today, less than 7 per cent of our packaging material consists of single-use plastic and we are working towards eliminating usage of them completely in our buildings in India by June 2020,” informed the spokesperson.
The Chief Corporate Affairs Officer of Flipkart, Rajneesh Kumar, said that the company is moving towards using EVs in logistics and is also working on waste management and efficient packaging by reducing the usage of single-use plastic. He said, “Earlier this year, we announced and outlined our vision of eliminating single-use plastic in our packaging by March 2021. As of 1st August, we have already achieved a 25 per cent reduction in usage of single-use plastics through various initiatives across our packaging value chain, and we are aggressively moving towards 100 per cent recycled plastic consumption in our supply chain by March 2021.”
The DPIIT is now further planning to come up with a series of steps under the Plastic Waste Free-Swachhata Hi Seva Campaign – 2019.
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