Mondelez India has provided a grant to Hasiru Dala, an NGO that will recycle multi-layered plastic (MLP) waste to create sustainable furniture boards for creating tables, benches and for other uses.
The pilot project, which was facilitated by global environment solutions company Ubuntoo, will use the technology purchased from start-up TrashCon, to convert approximately 600 tonne of MLP waste per annum into boards, a sustainable plywood alternative for building, construction, furniture, and other end uses.
As part of this initiative, MLP waste will be collected by Hasiru Dala’s network of waste collection units and then processed and converted at a special unit set up in Bengaluru into recycled boards.
A study in 2018 has shown more than 80% of plastic waste collected is low value but bring almost nothing in terms of income to the centres. These typically end up at landfills or in co-processing in cement kilns.
Mondelez India president Deepak Iyer, said: “One of the key challenges in India, is recycling of multi layered plastics given infrastructure constraints. While on the one hand, we continue to work with the government to support collection, segregation and recycling, we felt it was critical to experiment and support enterprising technologies and initiatives that can recycle multi layered plastics at scale to address the issues of waste management.“
The project is also expected to generate employment and create a viable business model while addressing the challenges of MLP in a sustainable manner.
“The success of this project and its learnings will create a model for companies in India to replicate for MLP recycling at scale,” said Iyer.
The initiative through funding by Mondelez India and in partnership with its impact investing arm, Sustainable Futures, is expected to begin commercial production in July 2021.
Over 97% of Mondelez India’s packaging is currently designed to be recyclable. In 2019-2020 and in 2020-21, the company achieved 100% extended producer responsibility targets in India, by taking back roughly 10,000 tonne of plastic packaging waste.
Source: ETRetail
