Chandigarh, Nov 11 : In a decisive step towards strengthening on-ground compliance, the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), on Tuesday, summoned 14 leading brands identified as major contributors of hard-to-recycle plastic waste.

The board directed them to present clear and time-bound strategies that incentivise consumers to return post-use plastic packaging.

"No company will be allowed to pollute Punjab. We will fix accountability and clean up all our cities," PPCB Chairperson Reena Gupta said.

This move germinated from a plastic waste brand audit conducted by the board, which is a first-ever exercise in India.

The PPCB carried out the Plastic Waste Brand Audit 2025 in six cities -- Amritsar, Bathinda, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Mohali, and Patiala.

The study checked plastic waste collected from different areas in these cities to find out which companies produce the most plastic waste.

Out of 6,991 kg of total municipal waste across diverse socio-economic profiles studied, 613 kg was found to be plastic.

The results show that 88 per cent of this plastic waste is hard-to-recycle.

The board found 11,810 plastic packets were found across the six cities.

However, just 14 major national and multinational brands were responsible for about 59 per cent of the hard-to-recycle waste.

The board said these findings highlight the urgent need for strict action under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules, which require companies to take responsibility for the waste created by their products.

The board noted that some companies and brand owners are meeting EPR targets only on paper by using unverifiable certificates or shifting responsibility to other states.

Producers of plastic waste must shift to real, verifiable, and fully auditable collection and processing of the plastic waste they generate, and this work must happen within Punjab itself, not on paper or in other states.

The board says it will continue to enhance monitoring, enforcement, and industry collaboration to move Punjab toward a cleaner, circular and plastic-responsible future.

/IANS