Clean Coonoor says only 70% of the waste generated in the city reaches recycling units. | Photo: M. Sathyamoorthy
The Nilgiris district administration is leading an initiative to convince product manufacturers to use multi-layer plastic packaging to help deal with waste generated after their products leave the shops.
Nilgiris Collector Lakshmi Bhavya Tanneeru says that with the ban on single-use plastic, the administration has restricted the use of polythene covers and juice and water bottles of less than five liters capacity. “We [the Nilgiris] are much better placed than many other districts and even states. That is because we can easily stop them at the checkpoints.”
However, this success in tackling polythene caps and plastic bottles has not been extended to multi-layer plastics. According to the collector, the Madras High Court has directed the district administration to approach companies supplying products to the Nilgiris so that they can come up with alternative solutions, such as eco-friendly packaging. “But the challenge is that these are huge multinational corporations and they will be doing packaging for the entire state and they will not do anything individually for the Nilgiris,” she points out.
As a first step to identify the companies that have the largest footprint in products sold and products created, a brand and waste audit has been conducted in Coonoor. The exercise will also be conducted in Udhagamandalam and Kotagiri.
“For this brand audit, we have teams conducting surveys in each store and collecting samples of products and packaging. We will take the sample size and then extrapolate it to the number of stores and establishments here,” the collector said.
Once the audit is complete, the district administration hopes to contact the brand with more details about the impact of the products and their packaging on the district. “Our action plan has two parts – one is to tell the corporations that they are contributing to a certain amount of plastic waste, and also to get them to help manage the waste through Extended Product Responsibility (EPR). They can also come up with better alternatives,” Ms Tanneeru said.
A spokesperson for Clean Coonoor, which conducted the audit in Coonoor, said the exercise covered around 12,000 households and 1,000 commercial establishments. It led to some findings.
Primary generator
The main finding was that the primary generators of Category 3 plastic waste (which is difficult to recycle) are produced by five corporations – Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Proctor and Gamble, ITC, Nestlé and Mondelez.
These companies have to share the cost of processing and disposal of the entire amount of plastic waste generated, which is around 150 kilograms in Coonoor. A total of 33,163 individual plastic packaging units were found generating waste during the audit, and 15,461 of them were Category 3 plastic waste.
Clean Coonoor also estimates that only 70% of the waste generated in the city reaches recycling facilities and small packaging – like toffee wrappers and packets – ends up as litter. The collector says that diapers are being thrown away by users, including tourists, and the administration is trying to find out the number of diapers sold to “put in place some kind of system”.
Published – September 15, 2025 12:34 PM IST
