New Delhi: Packaged goods company Dabur India Ltd., has become a plastic waste neutral company after having collected, processed and recycled around 27,000 metric ton of post-consumer plastic waste in the current financial year.

“With this, Dabur has become the first Indian consumer goods company to achieve this landmark. Today, Dabur collects, processes and recycles the same amount of plastic waste that Dabur sells in its product packaging in a year, thereby becoming a ‘Plastic Waste Neutral’ enterprise," the maker of Real juices and Vatika shampoo said.

The company has worked towards collecting all types of plastic waste, from PET and HDPE bottles, PP caps and labels to multi-layered plastics and beverage cartons, the company’s executive director of operations, Shahrukh A. Khan, said.

Dabur had set the target of collecting, processing and recycling over 22,000 metric ton of post-consumer plastic waste from across India in the current fiscal year.

Dabur surpassed the target three months ahead of schedule, Khan said.

“We work with government-registered recycling partners across the country and have taken progressive actions to reduce plastic waste in cities, town, villages, while also raising awareness about plastic waste management within the community. The collected plastic waste is being sent to different Recyclers, Waste-to-Energy Plants and Cement Kilns," he added.

Dabur’s Plastic Waste Management initiative was rolled out in the year 2017-18 as part of the Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rule 2016, 2018 (amended).

Companies have been focussing on recycling efforts over the last few years in a bid to achieve plastic neutrality. India has a significant plastic waste problem.

As India’s consumer market has opened up over the last decade, middle-income households are buying more of everything from detergents, to colas leading to more plastic waste. India’s per capita consumption of plastic at 11 kg per year is still among the lowest in the world, yet it generates a staggering 26,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day. Of this, 60% is recycled.

Dabur said it has till date collected a total of over 54,000 metric ton of plastic waste (recyclable and non-recyclable) direct from the end-users with the help of local ragpickers in 150 cities across India.

More recently, the company announced the launch of a new ‘Save the Environment’ campaign in Himachal Pradesh to create awareness within communities on managing plastic waste within their household.

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