Page 29 - Plastics News April 2019

FeAtures

Disrupting the Plastic Recyclables Industry – A Digital Way!

Ban of plastics is not the solution, there should be a mechanism that brings collaboration between brands,
producers, consumers for more responsible recycling of plastics

The booming Plastic Economy recyclers. They should also allocate budgets to educate
and incentivize informal sector comprising of rag pickers
ndian Plastic & Packaging industry is expected to grow collectors thus adding more economic value to the
Ito US$ 72 billion by 2020 and with an exceptional CAGR
recyclable plastics.
Existing challenges of Manufacturers, FMCG brands
● FMCG brands currently do not have any established
reverse logistics set up toinitiate take-back of used
materials from its users
● Lack of any mechanism to for multi-location pickup of
expired or damaged goodsfrom dealers, distributors
or retail points

● There is no ecosystem in place for take-back programs
from consumers directly inabsence of tertiary sales
data
● No visibility into the movement of materials from
pick up location to the next hopwhere it is brought
of 18% between 2016-2021. Raising population, FMCG or further movement of the same
companies increasing spends to promoted packaging ● Also, measuring the extent of awareness generated
goods, added focus by E-commerce players to capture from various online and offlinecampaigns is very
the Tier-II, Tier -III markets are the factors fueling these challenging.
tremendous growth opportunities. The Indian per capita ● Recyclables generated during manufacturing and
consumption of plastic is only 11 kg per year which packaging are disposed of byinformal channels,
is significantly less than the United States per capital therefore, lacking visibility of sustainability impact
consuming 109 kg per year and the global average of 28 created andcompliance related documentation.
kg. This presents a huge scope of growth for the industry.
How Recykal is changing the game
The Plastic Waste scenario
Recykal’s sustainability technology connects various
Currently India produces around 9.1 million tons of plastic
every year and contributes to 9.22% of total Municipal Solid stakeholders to create one of its kind ecosystem via a
Waste (MSW) generated. With the growing demand, plastic digital technology platform enabling transactions between
waste generation is expected to reach 31.4 million tons by the consumers, businesses, waste collectors and recyclers.
2031. The solution to tackle this burgeoning problem is not
the plastic ban. There should be collective, coordinated
efforts between plastic generators, producers, policy
makers for more responsible recycling.

As per the PWM Rules of 2016, Plastic & Packaging
companies have to come up with EPR plans to take
back certain amount of plastics generated by them
into the market. Plastic EPR is stirring up the industry
quickly and thrusting the brands to implement collection
schemes and redirect the after-use plastics to authorized

29 April 2019 Plastics News