Being economical is a common trait of India, and it chose to support its creed by relying on plastics, but that ended up in a toxic relationship from polluting households to suffocating the water bodies. The Central Pollution Control revealed that 25,940 tonnes are produced each day. On a yearly basis, that’s about 9.46 million tonnes, and only 60 percent is blessed with a second chance at life, while the rest pile up, littering the surroundings. Judging the type, it appears that the single-use plastics (SUP) are the culprits posing a hard time for environmental saviors in mitigating them. Clearly why the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) proposed new guidelines for the ‘Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules’ focusing on two resolutions, with one associated with SUPs.
Sort of like a new year’s resolution that flagged off at the start of this year resonating the announcement of Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Environment, who said as per the draft notification, the manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale, and use of some of the identified SUPs “are proposed to be prohibited by 1 January 2022”. Additionally, Choubey assured that “fourteen states/Union Territories have constituted the special task force till date. A national-level task force has also been constituted by the ministry for taking coordinated efforts to eliminate identified single-use plastic items and effective implementation of Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016”.
Amidst the busy nation-wide plastic reduction mission, arose a packaged goods company, Dabur India, that became a plastic neutral company after collecting, processing, and recycling 27,000 metric tonnes of post-consumer plastic waste this year.
First Indian Consumer Goods Company to Become Plastic Neutral
Dabur’s Plastic Waste Management initiative was rolled out back in 2017-18 under the Plastic Waste Management (PWM) and since then has been collecting, processing and recycling the same amount of plastic that it packages its products from. Going by the statistics so far, the brand has collected a metric-ton plastic waste of more than 54,000 from end-users across 150 cities in the country, all thanks to the aid of local rag pickers.
Shahrukh A Khan, Dabur India’s Executive Director, commented on the development as a matter of great pride for the Dabur family, who not only put efforts in collecting plastic waste from cities, towns, and villages but served a great deal by preventing the waste from ending up in landfills and oceans.
However, Khan revealed that the brand had surpassed the target three months ahead of schedule. In his words, he said, “we surpassed that target three months ahead of schedule and have enhanced our full-year target to 26,956 MT. We work with government-registered recycling partners across the country and have taken progressive actions to reduce plastic waste in cities, towns, villages, while also raising awareness about plastic waste management within the community”.
Well, rag pickers are not the only ones on the job; in fact, the brand has involved school children hailing from small towns and villages, imbibing information regarding various types of waste, including the benefits of segregating them from the source.
"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," it said.
Khan said that the accumulated plastic waste is sent to different recyclers, waste-to-waste energy plants, and cement kilns.
“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.
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, stated Khan.
Additionally, the brand is focused on collecting, processing, and recycling 22,000 metric tons of post-consumer plastic waste from India starting this year.
Also, the brand has been replacing paper cartons for its toothpaste products with eco-friendly packages. They say that change starts from within, and Dabur is well processed and can be seen to be thoroughly following that thought.
Goodbye Paper Cartons and Hello Eco-Friendly Packages
In a cooperative endeavor with Reliance Retail, the company has launched a pilot initiative to eliminate paper cartons from Dabur Red Paste. New eco-friendly packaging is being rolled out in important modern trade shops.
Reliance Retail CEO Grocery Damodar Mall said, “we are excited about working with Dabur on this smart way to reduce paper usage in packaging. Supermarket & SuperApp shoppers are aware citizens and are open to embracing such green efforts. They'll welcome this right away”.
The paper saved by removing the exterior cartons would be used to make notebooks for underserved children as part of the Child Rights and You's initiative (CRY).
According to Dabur India Marketing Head-Oral Care Harkawal Singh, the paper saved from removing the outer cartons will be used to make notebooks that will be distributed to over 1,20,000 underserved children as part of the company's 'Give up the Carton, Give me a Future' campaign in collaboration with CRY.
Dabur India is also launching a low-unit-price box with no exterior paper carton, designed specifically for rural areas.
Dabur has been in the forefront of various environmental sustainability programs, including biodiversity conservation, the collection, processing, and recycling of post-consumer plastic waste, and the reduction of paper in product packaging.
What’s the latest news with Dabur’s enthusiasm in mitigating plastic waste?
Well, the brand has launched a campaign in Himachal Pradesh named ‘Save the Environment’ to create awareness among communities regarding plastic waste management within their households.
On the other hand, a small revolution among small chain restaurants is happening for the sake of enabling people to curb plastic waste by offering them vada pav and tea—five Plastic Bottles for Tea and 10 for Vada Pavs. Order Up! Get those plastic bottles polluting the seas and landfills, for this deed will be credited in the form of Vada Pavs and Tea.