Start-up EcoEx launches plastic credit trading platform

EcoEx, a start-up in the plastic waste management sector, has launched India’s first digital marketplace to facilitate exchange of plastic credit certificates and strengthen the plastic recycling infrastructure, the firm said in a statement on Wednesday.

Plastic producers, importers and brand owners that use plastic for packaging have been made accountable for managing the end waste, as per the Uniform Framework for Extended Producer Responsibility released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

The revised Extended Producer Responsibility draft guidelines propose to allow these firms to meet compliance targets by buying ‘plastic credits’ from accredited companies that recycle packaging or co-process the plastic packaging waste.

The marketplace launched by EcoEx brings together these players in the plastic waste ecosystem to trade plastic credit certificates. The marketplace is supported by NCDEX e-markets Limited, EcoEx said.

“This model has three benefits: first, it ensures that plastic waste EPR compliance is met by brands in the most effective manner; second, it ensures that the plastic waste is ethically collected, transported and put to end of life and third, it incentives recyclers by giving them the monetary benefit for the recycled quantity and co-processors by helping them realise a better price,” the statement said.

According to a study by Un-Plastic Collective (co-founded by the Confederation of Indian Industry, United Nations Environment Programme and WWF-India), India generates 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste annually. Nearly 40 per cent% of this waste remains uncollected, as per the Ministry of Environment. A large quantity of this waste is ending up in landfills and oceans.