With increasing amounts of waste to manage and dispose, governments pondered the question of accountability.

Whether consumers or producers should both be held responsible for the waste they collectively create and use is continuously debated and the weightage of this divided responsibility is constantly recalibrated.

EPR, or Extended Producer Responsibility, first came about in Sweden in 1990. Thomas Lindhqvist, an academic and then Masters student at Lund University, introduced the concept. The idea was based on holding manufacturers accountable for their products to the Swedish Ministry of the Environment.

His research was aimed at establishing the extent to which current recycling and waste management systems influence new policies that promote cleaner production as well as disposal.

In 1992, Lindhqvist formally defined EPR in a report as:

“An environmental protection strategy to reach an environmental objective of a decreased total environmental impact from a product, by making the manufacturer of the product responsible for the entire life-cycle of the product and especially for the take-back, recycling and final disposal of the product. The Extended Producer Responsibility is implemented through administrative, economic and informative instruments. The composition of these instruments determines the precise form of the Extended Producer Responsibility.”

Coincidentally, many European countries were also looking for reform and novel strategies to improve waste management at the time Lindhqvist introduced his proposal.

This perfectly timed initiative led to the incorporation of various versions of EPR in almost all OECD countries.

Germany was the first country to implement a precedent example of EPR in Europe in 1991. The industry responded to this new policy by setting up a new “dual system” of waste collection compromising of collection streams of both household packaging and municipal waste.

Today, as defined by OECD, EPR is characterized by:

1. Incentives for producers: Taking environmental considerations into account when designing their products will reap benefits for the producers.
2. Shifting responsibility upstream: Producers are held accountable instead of municipalities

In the next blog, we will detail the implementation strategies along with provisions made in the name of EPR in various countries across the world.

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The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) was established under Food Safety and Standards, 2006. It consolidates various acts & orders that, until the formation of the authority, handled food related issues enforced and monitored by various Ministries and Departments.

FSSAI was created to lay down science-based standards for articles of food and as a regulatory body to oversee the manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import of the same food articles. This ensures availability of safe and healthy food for human consumption.

The aim of the 2006 Act was to establish a single reference point for all matters relating to food safety and standards which also ultimately led to the creation of FSSAI. Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India is the Administrative Ministry for the implementation of FSSAI.

Let’s look at an exhaustive list of food-safe materials sanctioned by the FSSAI.

A basic requirement for “food-grade material” is its inability to change the composition of the food and/or transfer harmful toxins into the food that it contains. 

1. Paper and Board Materials

Paper and board materials used in primary food packaging is expected to be free visible specks, grease marks, cuts, pinholes and other blemishes.

• Grease proof paper is required to be tested in accordance with IS:4006 (Part II) according to IS 6622
• Vegetable parchment or grease proof paper/aluminium foil laminate, especially for wrapping butter shall consist of a layer of aluminum foil bonded to one layer of vegetable parchment or greaseproof paper with the help of food grade micro-crystalline paraffin wax adhesive according to IS 7161.

2. Aluminum Foil

• According to IS 7161, aluminum foil should be fully annealed and shall comply with the requirements for chemical composition to SIC or NS 3 grade of IS: 737-1965

3. Adhesive

• Adhesives shall conform to Type 1 of IS:4654-1968.

4. Plastics

• IS 10146 (polyethylene), IS 10142 (polystyrene), IS 10151 (PVC), IS 10910 (polypropylene), IS 11434 (ionomer resins), IS 11704 (ethylene acrylic acid), IS 12252 (Polyalkylene Terephathalates) are standards that need to considered to use plastics in food packaging.

No inks, coatings or adhesives should be introduced into the wrapped food product so as to change composition, introduce a different odour, taste or toxins.

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