The Gujarat High Court directed stringent compliance with the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016. The Division Bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice D.N. Ray expressed serious concern over non-installation of Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) and failure to tie up with registered plastic waste processors across numerous Nagarpalikas.
According to the affidavit submitted by the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB), out of 91 Nagarpalikas inspected, 26 had not installed any MRFs, and 59 had not signed MoUs for plastic waste processing. The Court took note of these lapses and required the State Monitoring Committee and Commissioner of Municipalities to issue timelines to all Nagarpalikas and hold Chief Officers personally accountable with penal consequences for non-compliance.
Additionally, the Court encouraged municipal corporations and tourist city municipalities like Dwarka and Somnath to adopt GPCB’s eco-initiatives, including installation of cloth bag vending machines and reverse vending machines for plastic bottle collection.
The matter will next be reviewed on 12 September 2025.