Mumbai: Parle Agro, a beverage company will invest over Rs.50 crores in the next three years to implement an end-to-end PET plastic waste management (PWM) program, company said.
The company has partnered with the Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA) and Nepra and will collect and recycle 100% of its PET bottle waste – the first beverage company to achieve this feat nationally. All the recycled plastic will be channeled to textiles and other non-allied industry segments.
The maker of category leading brands such as Frooti and Appy Fizz, with the help of its waste management partners will facilitate an annual collection of 310 crore PET bottles recycling nearly 50,000 metric tonnes of PET waste.
“We have set an ambitious goal to immediately become 100% PET waste free company. This not only
requires us to accelerate many of our ongoing environment and sustainability initiatives, but also double
our investments. We are committed to invest Rs.50 crores in the next three years towards this endeavor.
Given our 30% growth rate, our ‘PET Sustainability’ investments will most definitely increase every year. Moreover, in the coming months we will be launching additional employee and consumer campaigns that
will act as a multiplier for our PWM initiatives” said Nadia Chauhan, MD and CMO, Parle Agro.
Parle Agro has collaborated with the Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA) to collect and recycle
100% of its PET bottle waste. IPCA has grown their infrastructure from just one region in Northern India
to a pan India network for dry waste collection. Their entire PET waste collection has reached to 1000MT
per month from 7000MT per year. IPCA also has invested in educating and training waste collectors and
the society at large on different types and grades of plastic that can be recycled including waste
segregation methods to ensure more waste is recycled within our country.
Commenting on its partnership with Parle Agro, Ashish Jain, Director, IPCA said, “IPCA works across the country with companies and brands to help them effectively adopt sustainable techniques and strategies for efficient management of waste and support the growing ecosystem. We are glad to partner with Parle Agro who have aggressively stepped up their PWM initiative nationally.”
India’s import numbers on plastic scraps from other countries has quadrupled over the years. Over
1,50,000 million tonnes (MT) of post-consumer PET flakes were imported from across the world.
“Since India’s discarded PET bottle availability is much less than the existing recycling capacity, it is important to address the plastic waste concern and ensure plastic is making its way to recycling centres thus lowering our dependence on imports.” opines Nadia.
“We are working towards supporting the government’s initiatives in making our society plastic waste free.
We have been using PET and paper-based packaging material both of which are 100% recyclable. Our focus is on new and innovative solutions to address issues that will limit impact on natural resources, eliminate waste and reduce carbon footprint. Taking this forward, we have reduced PET Resin by 12% in bottles and 15% reduction of HDPE/PP in closures/ caps. Our countries roadmap for recycling will help nurture an allied recycling industry and create thousands of jobs and investment opportunities”, says Schauna Chauhan, CEO, Parle Agro.
