Glass makers assure availability of bottles to pharma units

A section of glass manufacturers today assured of ensuring availability of glass bottles to the liquid filling pharmaceutical units on priority basis throughout the year.
Glass is the most environment-friendly packaging medium and impacts on humans and environment are much less compared to polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the All India Glass Manufacturers Federation (AIGMF) said in a statement today.
Majority of PET manufacturers are not recycling Amber PET bottles. In a recent survey conducted by A C Nielsen, it was found that only 4.5 per cent Amber PET bottles are recycled in the country. This only establishes the fact that PET is almost impossible to recycle but can only be downcycled, the statement claimed.

The Union health ministry recently decided to go ahead with its decision to ban the use of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) containers in pharmaceutical industry.
The draft notification said that no manufacturer should use the PET or plastic containers in liquid oral formulations for primary packaging of drug formulations for paediatric use, geriatric use and for use in pregnant and women of reproductive age group.
The pharma companies have been given a transition period of 6 months after the final publication of the order in the official gazette to switch over to alternate packaging medium.
The All India Plastics Manufacturers' Association (AIPMA) the largest apex body of the plastic industry had already raised strong objection against the government notification over prohibition of use of polyethylene terephthalate or plastic containers for primary packaging of drug formulations and requested immediate intervention of Ministry of Health & Family Welfare to withdraw these rules.