Plastic bottle makers’ ₹10,000 cr recycling bet runs into policy risk

India’s plastic bottles industry faces a ₹10,000 crore quan- dary: investments in a cost- lier, recyclable, food-grade material risk turning dud as regulatory uncertainty has slowed adoption by beverage makers.

- Vijay C. Roy & Rituraj Baruah

India's PET consumption is at 1.2-1.4 million tonnes a year.

(REUTERS)

India drafted rules in February 2022 to make it mandatory for beverage-grade bottles to contain at least 30% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (r-PET).

It’s a kind of material that can be fully recycled. The new Plastic Waste Management Rules were scheduled to roll out from 1 April last year, and the industry was given three years to prepare for the transition.

In anticipation of the enforcement, bottle makers invested in setting up r-PET capacity. However, the environment ministry's draft notification in June 2025 proposed relaxing the norms, allowing beverage companies to carry forward any shortfall in meeting recycled plastic usage targets in 2025-26 for up to 3 years, starting 2026-27.