Page 80 - Plastics News January 2018

in the news

Thane duo creates machine to First Indian firm to be shortlisted

make green fuel from household for circular economy award
plastic lastic recycling start-up ‘Banyan Nation’ has been

Pshortlisted for ‘The Circular Economy’ award,
hile many people are which will be presented at the World Economic
Wstill looking for ways Forum in Davos, later this month. The company, the
to manage and recycle their first Indian firm to be shortlisted, has developed a
garbage, Thane residents have proprietary plastic cleaning technology that converts
come up with machines which collected plastic waste into near virgin quality recycled
produce fuel from plastic and granules.
biogas from wet waste which Leveraging data intelligence, the firm integrates
can further generate electricity. thousands of last mile informal waste collectors and
These can be used to meet your large bulk waste generators into its supply chain.
small-time fuel needs like oiling Banyan Nation’s work for Tata Motors in automotive
machine, power generator, etc. bumper recycling and its partnership with French

An interest in zero garbage led Thane residents Melwyn cosmetics giant L’Oreal in shampoo bottle recycling
Fernandes and Vikal Chourasiyar to inventing machines has put it on the global sustainability map, a release
that can make fuel and gas from plastic and other from the company said.
household waste. “I have seen that plastic takes years Co-founder and CEO Mani Vajipey said the company
to decompose and wanted to do something that helps help brands sustainably ‘Make In India’ by replacing
the environment,” says Fernandes, 47, a mechanical
engineer and construction equipment manufacturer. “I
know that plastic is made from petroleum products. So
why not reverse the process? That plastic is used to derive
petroleum/green fuel,” he says. Hence, through a joint
venture, Chourasiya and he started working on this idea
two years ago and now they have come up with a machine
which makes fuel from plastic.
“There are plastic items found in household garbage
like plastic bags, broken pieces, etc., which cannot be
recycled. Our machine uses such plastic to make fuel
which has a component similar to diesel,” he adds. the use of virgin plastic with recycled plastic that
The machine has a capacity of converting 5 kg plastic is comparable in quality and performance. “The
into bio-fuel daily and costs Rs 1 lakh. It can be used recognition at the World Economic Forum is a
by housing societies to process their plastic waste. testament to the strength of innovations such as ours
This diesel can be used to oil machines, as fuel in generator, coming out of India. Within the next decade, almost
even burn funeral pyres. They are also working on making all mainstream plastic products, including food grade
bio-gas using wet waste and the results will be out soon. packaging will contain recycled materials. We see
“We have also applied for a patent,” he says.Thane city Banyan at the forefront of this paradigm shift,” he said.
generates over 700 metric tonnes of garbage daily. There Banyan is one of the first companies in the country to
are over 700 big housing societies and complexes in Thane use mobile, cloud and IoT to integrate thousands of
and dumping garbage is a big issue in the city which has informal sector last mile collectors into its supply chain
been time and again asked by the Bombay High court to to recover post consumer as well as post industrial
look into ways of solid waste management. plastic waste.

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