Industry welcomes dismissal of PILs demanding ban on PET

The PET industry has welcomed the dismissal of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) demanding ban on use of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) - the transparent inert universally food contact approved material - as a packaging material.

The latest September 2013 order by Hyderabad High Court has provided relief not only to beverages industry but also to the profound PET user industries such as pharmaceutical products, drinking water, edible oil, milk, spices, honey, ketchup, pickles, confectioneries, etc, an industry official told PTI here.

Various NGOs have filed PILs in various high courts since around January 2013 demanding ban on PET as a packaging material for beverages. The Court orders have falsified all claims in the PIL that PET is not an inert and it contaminates the beverages, PET causes environmental hazards, etc.

The courts have taken cognizance of various documents like Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) - conforming PET as a safe material for use, The Food Safety Act (FSA) provision - use of packaging materials which conforms to BIS standards are approved for use in India for said purpose, results of the tests conducted by the Government Laboratories certified that PET conforms to BIS/FDA norms before rejecting all the PILs, the official said.

Also, the court has taken into consideration the fact that used empty PET bottles are recycled back to make value added textile products in India and it is not environmental hazard as was claimed in the PILs.

The claims in the PIL were dismissed by the virtue of orders passed by High Courts of Andhra Pradesh (PIL No. 44 of 2013), Uttar Pradesh (PIL No. 54857 of 2012), Madhya Pradesh (PIL No. 2509 of 2013), Punjab and Haryana (PIL No. 2518-2013) and Karnataka (PIL No.12847/2013).

All the PILs stand dismissed by the court orders. The Hyderabad High Court order is the last in the series.

PET is one of the most sought after and the fastest growing durable packaging material in the world with consumption of almost 200 lakh tonnes globally for rigid packaging

Ramesh Chauhan, Chairman and Managing Director, Bisleri International, the largest consumer of PET bottles for packaging Bisleri while expressing satisfaction on the court order said: "At last somebody up there understands the value of PET packaging and not getting misled by false propaganda about the same."

He further emphasised "Infact PET and all plastics are the only packaging material which has made a unique value system for itself, to be recycled more than one time, which ensures that the ecosystem is kept free from its nuisance. I am happy to note people are awakening to facts which the industry was trying hard to express for a long time."

"PET is a globally accepted packaging material for liquor packaging both in India and abroad, it has been certified for its suitability in relation to liquor by various government laboratories of both Central as well as state governments.

"It is approved as per FDA and poses no threat to human health. At times there is an orchestrated action at the behest of rivals of PET bottles, purely for their vested interests," Radico Khaitan director K P Singh said.

The judgements are based on fact that PET conforms to all regulatory compliances and defeated the repeated false claim of PET being not suitable, Manjushree Technopack managing director Vimal Kedia said.