NGO gets notice on charge in PET packaging case

About 600,000 tonnes of PET is produced in India every year, of which the pharmaceutical industry uses 100,000 tonnes

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) issued a notice on Monday to a non-government body, for the latter to reply to a charge that it was acting secretly on behalf of the glass industry in seeking a ban on the use of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) packaging for medicinal products.

The charge was made by the PET Container Manufacturers Association (PCMA). The NGT has sought a response from the body in question, Him Jagriti Uttaranchal Welfare Society. The next hearing is on November 30.

Him Jagriti had sought the PET ban on the argument that the packaging ensured leaching of harmful chemicals and heavy metals into pharmaceutical content.

PCMA has claimed the petition was filed at the behest of business rivals of the plastic industry. Him Jagriti, it contended, had suppressed the fact that its president was a consultant to the glass manufacturing industry. 

"The present proceedings are not based on environmental concerns but commercial interests of the glass industry," it had said.

An experts committee constituted by the Union health ministry had earlier told the Tribunal that there was no conclusive proof that PET bottles used for packaging of medicines have ill-effects on human health. The panel was set up by the ministry in August last year and had told the NGT this March that PET could be used safely for the purpose, under a regulatory system.

However, this represented an about-turn for the government. 

Until March 2015, several regulatory authorities held the common stand that PET bottles and plastic multi-layered packaging was injurious for human health, beside being a serious environmental hazard. 

The controversy had threatened the Rs 4,000-crore PET pharma packaging industry. The major PET producers are Reliance Industries, Dhunseri Petrochem and JBF Industries. About 600,000 tonnes of PET is produced in India every year, of which the pharma sector uses 100,000 tonnes.