Manjushree Technopack, the face behind India’s rigid plastics packaging company and backed by Advent International, has now unveiled a new initiative ‘Born Again’ to deliver recycled packaging material to the FMCG industry.
Now Born Again, a venture under MTL New Initiatives, according to the company, is a first step towards building an ecosystem of circular consumption. It is vertically integrated with the plastic waste collection ecosystem, with an objective to reduce the amount of plastic waste going to landfills and to deliver virgin-like quality PCR (Post Consumer Recycled) resin (PP and HDPE) to FMCG customers.
As more and more companies pledge towards reduction of plastic waste and move towards 100 per cent recyclable packaging, it is an opportune time for the company to enable brands with packaging solutions made from recycled plastics. The company already has in-principle arrangement with several global and domestic FMCG brands for their PCR requirements. In the first phase, MTL will use PCR resins to produce non-food packaging (personal care, home care, lubricants, paints and so on) and secondary packaging for food products.
In order to have a dedicated unit, it has set up an advanced recycling plant at the Bidadi Industrial Area, in the outskirts of Bengaluru. The facility was inaugurated by Radha Mohan Gupta, regional procurement director (South Asia), Reckitt Benckiser, and Ullas Kamath, joint MD, Jyothy Labs.
The plant has the capacity to process more than 6,000 metric tonne (MT) of rigid plastic virgin-like quality PCR resin per annum. The company intends to set up multiple recycling plants across India over the next two years with a total capacity of close to 20,000 MT.
“Sustainability is an integral part of our business goals. Today, brands are eagerly looking for reliable solution providers who can help them with post-consumer recyclable waste material of their products. We are very keen to support the circular economy and strongly see the potential to become one of the few players in the industry to offer brands end-to-end solution for recycling and EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility). The recycling plant in Bengaluru with and our collaboration with Saahas Zero Waste (SZW) is our first step towards bringing more structure to the highly unorganised collection of plastic waste, said Sanjay Kapote, CEO, MTL.
The demand for post-consumer recylables is projected to grow from US$7.7 billion in 2019 to US$10.2 billion by 2024. However, the biggest factor hindering production of PCR at scale in India is the unorganised waste collection and segregation mechanism leading to scrap contamination. For the recycling plant in Bangalore, MTL has partnered with a leading social enterprise, SZW to collect the plastic waste generated across the city. It manages 38 tonne of waste per day across Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Goa.