MRP+ refundable deposit from April 1: Goa’s big clean-up gamble

PAnaji: In recent years, visitors and locals in Goa feature recoiled at the visual modality of its once-pristine beaches and countryside throttling with mounds of pliant, glaze bottles and metal shards that have increasingly come to underline the perils of unchecked urban expansion and booming tourism.Now, the state government is attempting to reverse course. Come April 1, Goa is set to roll out a statewide deposit refund scheme (DRS) to encourage people to return and recycle plastic, glass and metal packaging otherwise discarded after use, officials of the state department of environment and climate change said.According to Anthony de Sa, who chairs the scheme administrative committee that will oversee the rollout of the scheme, the scheme will introduce an added cost over and above the maximum retail price of a product, ranging from ₹2 to ₹10. This money will be returned to the buyer whenever they return the empty packet or bottle to any of the many deposit machines that will be set up across the state.Also Read: Himachal: Security fee for plastic use at tourist destinations soon“It basically means that whenever a consumer buys any product which is packaged in a non biodegradable packaging -- plastic, aluminium, glass or multi-layer plastic – and is sold in Goa after April 1, 2026, the consumer will have to pay what is called a green deposit. This deposit on most products is ₹5. On liquor bottles it is ₹10. If the product itself costs less than 20, then it is ₹2. When the consumer returns that packaging at certain collection centres, that consumer will get that money back,” said Anthony de Sa, a retired bureaucrat who heads the state’s scheme administrative committee, which is overseeing the roll out of the scheme.Work on the scheme – one of the first to be implemented by a state government – began more than two years ago. There are similar container deposit schemes around the world, especially in the US and Europe.A similar scheme is in force in eight districts of Uttarakhand.In its present form, the scheme will work by mandating manufacturers or anybody who wants to sell products in Goa have to register with the scheme administrator. “They have to pay a deposit for each and every piece they want to send into Goa, if that product has non biodegradable packaging. If the product is (sold at) more than ₹20, the deposit is ₹5. If it is less than 20, it is ₹2, and for glass bottles it is ₹10,” de Sa said. Products that cost less than ₹5 will be exempt from the scheme.In the first phase, Goa will implement the scheme only for liquor -- usually sold in glass bottles -- and dumped along the state’s beaches often in a broken condition.Also Read: Goa amends Bill to impose ‘deposit scheme’ on single-use plastic purchasesBut the Goa FMCG and Telecom Distributors Association has called for a scrapping of the scheme, calling it “anti-consumer.”“As a customer you have to pay the deposit over and above the MRP. Then you have to keep the packaging safe. If the QR code is mutilated or unreadable you will lose your money. If you buy products and want to take them to friends and relatives outside the state, there is no refund because other states are not involved in this. This is only a Goa government scheme. If you misplace or throw your packaging out, you will lose your money,” Darryl Pereira, the president of the association, said.As part of the roll out, the Goa government has been holding meetings with manufacturers, distributors and retailers alongside the service provider ‘Recykal’, the company chosen via a tender process that will be setting up reverse vending machines and collection points.“The idea is to bring about a behaviour change in the way consumers treat packaging material by assigning value to waste, including hard to collect waste, in a manner that treats waste as something that will not be thrown away as something worthless,” said an official.De Sa argued that such a move will ensure that even if consumers do not return packaging, it will make it worthwhile for garbage collectors or ragpickers to collect discarded waste and return it to deposit centres.“There will be at least 300 collection centres all over Goa. Every panchayat will have at least one. Bigger panchayats will have 3-4 different centres. Towns like Panjim and Margao, may have even 10 collection centres. Every year will be increased to at least 500 collection centres within two years,” de Sa said.Recykal has previously rolled out a similar programme along the pilgrimage routes of Uttarakhand. The scheme is currently in force in eight districts of Uttarakhand.Goa currently generates around 800 tons of waste per day and around 50% of this is non-biodegradable waste, according to the state’s solid waste management corporation. Facilities run by the Corporation. The state can deal with around 450 tons of waste a day.“This scheme has been implemented in places across the world. Nowhere has the scheme been rolled back. We are targeting a return rate of around 95-96% of all packaging material once the system gets adopted in the state,” an official for Recykal said.