mumbai after giving relief by exempting retail packaging from the banned plastic list the government also placated packaged water and drinks manufacturersthe revised notification issued late on monday suggests a refundable charge for pet bottles but allows manufacturers to decide the rate they want to impose during purchasethe manufacturers had opposed the buyback rates saying they are very high especially for the smaller bottles the notification however said pet bottles of less than 500ml capacity have been banned for drinking water it added that bottles with 500ml to 1 litre capacity can be sold with a recommended refundable buyback charge of rs 2 one litre bottles can be charged re 1 this charge will be over and above mrp and will be refunded when the empty bottle is taken backsimilarly under the scheme milk pouches will be covered and a refundable charge of 50p will be charged for a pouch of milkwe made representations to the government to review the refundable charge especially for smaller bottles the rs 2 prescribed by them was too high and would have made the whole scheme impractical said an official from the recycling association the scheme will be implemented in the state from july 11experts said the cost of a bottle is 63 paise and if the government wants the recycler to pay rs 2 for it it will never be sustainableour ultimate aim is to ensure that the bottles that are bought go into recycling and do not add to litter the refundable charge is a mechanism the manufacturers and the recyclers are to implement the scheme if they can achieve our aim in lesser charge we do not have a problem said a senior official from the environment department which is implementing the plastic ban that came into effect in the state from june 23maharashtra alone produces 1100 metric tonnes of plastic garbage every day according to environment department statistics 12 crore pet bottles are manufactured every day in the state as many as 30 lakh lessthan500ml bottles and 25 lakh 500ml pet bottles are circulated every day