Page 7 - Plastics News November 2019

THE PRESIDENT
THE PRESIDENT SAYS SAYS

Plastic Waste Management is the key ...

e are witnessing some serious challenges in the economy, especially in the plastics sector,
Wwhich is creating major disruptions with the Government’s push for phasing out Single Use
Plastics and arbitrary actions by state government and authorities. Testing times are ahead
for the Indian plastics industry. In my opinion, plastics is the major and greatest achievement
of humans, right from packaging to aeronautics, it is used everywhere and it is very difficult
to imagine a life without plastics. It is time for the plastics material providers, converters and
brand owners to understand the importance of technology, waste- collection, segregation,
waste disposal and value from waste creation. I believe that there is a technology-gap and lack
of awareness due to which we have these issues related to plastics waste. Nevertheless, I have
this opinion that waste management and recycling are the best available options to tackle the
ongoing situation. AIPMA recently concluded a very successful Conference on Plastics Recycling
and Waste Management Technologies 2019 in New Delhi. The event was attended by various
stakeholders including Government, Processors, Brands, NGO’s, Waste management companies,
Raw material producers, Recyclers and R&D institutes. The underlying theme is that “Plastic is JAGAT KILLAWALA
not a waste, but should be looked upon as a resource for various other industries. The solution
to plastic waste is recycling and waste management.”
I am pleased to inform you that AIPMA led a very successful Exhibitor and Visitor Delegation to the
K-Fair 2019 from 16-23 Oct 2019 at Dusseldorf, Germany. Senior officials from Government of India
including Smt. Alka Nangia Arora, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises
visited the event on our invitation. It gave an opportunity to interact with International Plastic
Associations to discuss and deliberate on various issues and activities concerning the plastic
industry and explore some activities that could be jointly collaborated.
Global IT giants have predicted that it expects India to grasp around 15-20 percent market share
in the Internet of Things (IoT). As Indian companies retool their factories for a digitally driven
future, this prediction could before long become a reality. With Industry 4.0 technologies, a
significant number of features have been built into machines to minimize human intervention.
This enables them to take care of predictive maintenance, prescriptive maintenance, storing of
information for future use and also increases shop floor efficiencies and productivity for delivering
high-quality products. Advances in Additive Manufacturing or 3D Printing are transforming the
ways in which products are designed, developed, manufactured and distributed, enabling the
industry to bring forth products with newer designs which are cleaner, lighter and safer. With
this in mind, AIPMA is in process of bringing the latest technologies to the doorsteps of the Indian
plastics industry by setting up AIPMA Technology Centres in Mumbai and Delhi NCR.
AIPMA has been actively advocating with Government on number of key issues such as mandatory
BIS standards and increasing import duty on plastics finished goods, EPR framework and favorable
policies for MSME’s.
Plastic industry should look for exploring opportunities in emerging sectors such as defense,
space, aerospace, medical equipment’s, railways etc. which are expected to grow rapidly in
coming years. I would particularly advise my industry colleagues to concentrate on exports of
plastics goods by focusing on improved product quality and technology requirements of new and
emerging industrial sectors.

Jagat Killawala
president@aipma.net

7 November 2019 Plastics News