THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: What do you do with empty liquor bottles? For the most part these days, they are getting dumped on the roadside and deserted plots with impunity. The drink-and-discard attitude of the less civic-minded customers has now prompted the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco) to launch a spirited battle against the bottle menace.
With the Suchitwa Mission breathing down its neck, Bevco -- the state government monopoly
on liquor sales in Kerala -- is trying to get liquor suppliers take back used liquor bottles. Bevco managing director H Venkatesh last week called a meeting of liquor suppliers to discuss how the empty bottles can be collected.
The Suchitwa Mission has, in fact, roped in Bevco as part of a larger campaign to deal with the menace of plastic wastes, especially used plastic bottles which are very hard to dispose of. The Mission has zoomed in on empty liquor bottles as part of its campaign for a waste-free, pollution-free Kerala.
‘’We’re trying to bring in a behavioural change in the public. In fact, we’re launching a campaign soon. We’ll start with Bevco and move on to other agencies as well,’’ Mission executive director Ajay Kumar Varma said.
Initially, the mission had asked Bevco to take back liquor bottles under the policy of ‘extended producer responsibility’ which make the producer also accountable for the disposal of an end-of-life product.
Bevco, however, was reluctant since it was not a producer company. Subsequently, it agreed to formulate a scheme under which liquor companies can take back the used bottles.
The problem of liquor bottle littering had worsened after the mass closure of bars in 2014, according to Bevco officials. This prompted boozers to go ‘mobile’ — make merry in moving vehicles and dump the empty bottles on the roadside.