No more plastic: Hotels to serve drinking water in reusable glass bottles

The latest directions of FSSAI also specify that these glass bottles should not be kept for sale outside the hotel premises.

This move, issued in a notification of Food Safety and Standards Association of India (FSSAI) on September 9, comes after the authority found that packaged plastic bottles in hotels generated enormous plastic waste.

Soon, hotels across the country will have to replace plastic bottles completely and serve drinking water in reusable glass bottles with paper seals for free.

In June last year, Maharashtra had banned packaged drinking water below 200 ml, among other single-use plastic items. While many states have similar bans on plastic in place, the central government plans to do away with single-use plastic items including plastic bags, cutlery and packaging material, among others.

This move, issued in a notification of Food Safety and Standards Association of India (FSSAI) on September 9, comes after the authority found that packaged plastic bottles in hotels generated enormous plastic waste.

“The hotels will have to serve water to their guests in glass bottles, mentioning details of the hotel. For this, hotels will need to set up an in-house drinking water bottling system on its premise. All sanitation and hygienic conditions will need to be adhered to as per standard norms,” the notification stated.

The latest directions of FSSAI also specify that these glass bottles should not be kept for sale outside the hotel premises.

The bottle’s make, BIS specification of the drinking water and packaging standards will have to be adhered to as per the prescribed norms of IS 10500 : 2012 and FSS Act 2006 specifications, respectively.