The southern bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday directed Aavin to explore the feasibility of selling milk in reusable plastic bottles. The directive was issued in response to a petition filed by S P Surendranath Karthik and Ayya, urging Aavin to adopt environmentally friendly packaging alternatives, such as glass bottles, instead of the single-use plastic packets, which has been the practice for the past three decades.
During the hearing, Aavin’s counsel highlighted the high costs (around Rs 1,500 crore) associated with switching to reusable plastic or glass bottles. The state government argued that Aavin has been selling milk at cheaper rates compared to private competitors, who also sell milk in plastic packs. It was said that adopting glass bottles could lead to high milk price, which will burden consumers.
NGT’s judicial member, Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, and expert member Satyagopal Korlapati directed Aavin to conduct a preliminary study on reusable plastic bottles and scheduled next hearing for March 4.
Meanwhile, it has been learnt that Aavin is likely to challenge the show cause notice issued by TNPCB imposing a penalty of Rs 5.1 crore for allegedly polluting Korattur lake near its Ambattur plant. An activist from the Korattur Lake Protecting People’s Movement had filed a case in NGT against Aavin, which directed TNPCB to conduct an inspection.
During the inspection, it was found that Aavin was generating higher volume effluent than permitted, and a penalty was imposed. However, Aavin claimed that its effluent treatment plant is capable enough to treat the amount of effluent being generated.
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