New Delhi, June 02, 2025: The delay in granting of licences by FSSAI, to the factories set up by recycled PET manufacturers is likely to push a majority of these companies into bankruptcy, the Association of PET Recyclers (Bharat) – APR Bharat, said.
The industry has set up a total capacity of 4 lakh MT at an estimated investment of Rs 7500-8000 crore to produce recycled polyethylene terephthalate (r-PET) for generating food- packaging material. Companies have adopted state-of-art technology and set up their factories adhering to standards approved by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and US Food and Drug istration (FDA).
While a handful of them have received the FSSAI nod, as many as 15 plants, which are fully commissioned, are still awaiting clearance from the regulator to commence commercial production.
It is to be noted that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), had in 2022, issued guidelines on the mandatory usage of 30 per cent recycled food-grade plastic content into PET packaging bottles by beverage manufacturers, which were to come into effect from April 1, 2025. In the same year (2022-23), FSSAI came out with guidelines for recycling of post-consumer PET for food applications and five licences were issued and r-PET supplies have been used by brand owners since then, providing for a field validation on the use of r-PET, as was also acknowledged by FSSAI.
The revised FSSAI guidelines, which should have been in place at least 2-3 months before 1st April’25, were actually notified only in the last week of May 2025, which has further extended the timelines for licence issuance to more than nine applications pending with FSSAI since Dec’24/Jan’25.
“Following regulatory guidance by MoEFCC and FSSAI in 2022, and based on the understanding that this would give a huge impetus to the demand for r-PET in packaging bottles by beverage manufacturers, the industry started building capacities and a majority of them have been fully commissioned since January 2025. The nine applications pending with FSSAI has resulted in capacities lying idle. A majority of these investments have a significant component of debt and any delay in commencing operations could force these companies into bankruptcy,” Shailendra Singh, Director General, APR Bharat said.
Close to 50 per cent of the new investment is funded through bank debt. “If commercial production does not commence soon then these companies may face a huge fund crunch and may find it difficult to service the loan leading to most of these s turning into NPA (non-performing asset),” Singh added.