Accenture and FICCI have jointly launched a report titled, ‘Strategies for Sustainable Plastic Packaging in India – A USD 100 billion Opportunity till 2030’ at the recently concluded Circular Economy Symposium.
There is a growing need to efficiently respond to the rising resource constraints while also responsibly addressing the multiple social and environmental challenges. Succeeding in this environment requires organizations to reimagine their business models and find innovative solutions to several intricate and interconnected challenges. It is in this challenging context that circular business models have gained greater prominence than ever before. The report explores the specific challenge of plastic packaging waste and applies the principles of circular economy to identify viable solutions for India.
Highlights of FICCI-Accenture report titled, ‘Strategies for Sustainable Plastic Packaging in India – A USD 100 billion Opportunity till 2030’
- India consumes around 10 million tons of plastic packaging each year that amounts to around 13 billion dollar in value. However, currently only a fraction of this value is being captured due to multiple reasons such poor packaging design, low waste collection, inefficient recycling among others. In the current scenario, India will lose an estimated $133 billion dollars in the next ten years due to unsustainable packaging.
- The report presents an approach to capture $100 billion of this loss through 8 high value interventions. To realize this value, the report suggests a holistic value chain approach – from reducing consumption and designing better packaging, to reusing as much as possible, and finally collecting and recycling better once the packaging is wasted.
- During packaging design dematerializing and designing recyclable packaging presents a $45 billion business opportunity
- During use phase increasing the useful life of packaging by reusing it over multiple lifecycles presents $20 billion business opportunity
- At the end of life phase, improving collection and recycling systems in India presents a $35 billion business opportunity
- Capitalizing on this opportunity requires multiple industries, primarily, FMCG, polymer and packaging producers and plastic recyclers and waste management companies, to act.
- The report also provides a list of short, medium and long term action plan and five system-level accelerators customized to Indian context. Five system-level accelerators which will enable India’s sustainable plastic packaging movement include:
- Build a national level flagship campaign
- Align on definitions & standards
- Expand Plastic policy framework
- Invest in R&D and pilots
- Equip the internal operating model
