The National Green Tribunal has directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to take coercive action and conduct an Environmental Audit of plastic polluters including Amazon, Flipkart, Coca Cola, and Pepsi.

E-commerce giants against whom a petition has been filed in the National Green Tribunal by Environmentalists Aditya Dubey and Aman Banka to stop them from allegedly using excessive plastic for packaging.

Earlier in June 2020, the companies had neither not submitted complete documents regarding the quantity of plastic consumption nor have not responded to the communication of the CPCB.

"The environmental audit directed by NGT will bring the truth to the fore as it will expose the huge gap between how much plastic waste is being created by these companies & how much plastic waste they are actually collecting under EPR. It will establish the violation of Rule 9 of PWM Rules by these companies and I am sure that the NGT will direct them to pay compensation for the environmental damage caused by these companies on the principle of ‘polluter pays'," said Aditya Dubey.

Aditya and Aman have further requested CPCB to conduct an environmental audit of 50 other plastic polluting companies against whom they have filed a complaints. The companies named include Amul, Mother Dairy, Tata salts, Priya Gold, Anmol Biscuits, Sunfeast and Bingo-ITC Limited, Delmonte to name a few.

Aditya had also written a letter to Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Chairperson of CPCB requesting to investigate the 50 companies with regards to compliance with Rule 9 of the PWM rules and actions against those not complying with the rules.

"After examining the facts, we have found most of the major plastic producer are not compiling with the mandate of Rule 9 of the plastic waste management rules 2016 inspite of almost 4 years having past since enactment of the said rules. Most of the major plastic producers like E commerce companies, dairy companies , bread companies and FMCG have still not made any scheme of collection of the plastic waste created by their business," the letter states.

"This is our complaint to the authorities. Now, we want CPCB to take same action as is being taken against Amazon, Flipkart, Coke etc, to be taken against these 50 companies as well," said Aditya.