Plastic liquor bottles make up a significant portion of the flotsam and jetsam of daily life in Kerala.
Notably, the State has among the highest per capita alcohol consumption rates in the country.
The throw-away detritus clogging drains and polluting rivers and waterbodies has exacerbated marine contamination, threatened the livelihoods of lakhs of fishers, and emerged as a significant public health concern.
Piles of discarded plastic liquor bottles blight the State’s beaches, parks, and hill stations after weekends and holidays, burdening civic bodies and municipal workers.
Environmentalists have often blamed the highly profitable Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco), a State-owned liquor retail monopoly, alongside companies selling bottled drinking water, soft drinks, and soda, for the plastic pollution mainly.
Bevco retails an estimated 30 lakh bottles monthly, eighty per cent of which are low-priced liquor packaged in plastic bottles. Buyers often discard the bottles in public places, including roadsides and canals.
As part of its corporate social responsibility initiative, Bevco provisionally experimented with a plastic bottle buy-back scheme to help the State’s attempt to mitigate the environmental menace, at least to some extent.
On Tuesday, Bevco managing director and chairperson, Harshita Attaluri, announced that she will expand the buy-back scheme incrementally to cover retail outlets across the State.
Kudumbashree’s role
She said the Kudumbashree mission and the Clean Kerala Company, a state-government-owned firm, will aid the plastic bottle buy-back system. Kudumbashree workers will operate the deposit counters.
The Bevco will charge a small monetary deposit of ₹20 for the plastic liquor bottle. When consumers return the empty bottle to the designated retail shop, Bevco will refund the deposit or reduce it from the cost of their next purchase.
The bottles will have QR codes attesting to the deposit paid by the buyer. Kudumbashree employees will scratch out the code once the retail outlet redeems the deposit refund scheme.
The Bevco, with Kudumbashree’s help, will sell the used plastic bottles to prominent recyclers, including those contracted by distilleries.
The Bevco has also announced that buyers have to bring their own bags to pack liquor bottles.
It has stopped the practice of giving bottles wrapped in old newspaper to buyers. The Bevco outlets will also offer biodegradable carry bags at affordable prices to consumers.
Swanky outlets
The State-owned entity also planned to make its retail shops more consumer and gender friendly by opening swanky outlets in modern buildings with parking, and also in shopping malls.
In the long run, Bevco plans to relocate retail outlets operating from dingy buildings.
Published – September 09, 2025 07:51 pm IST
