Indian beverage industry to jointly launch packaging waste management venture

To address the growing concern of plastic waste in India, 32 companies including PepsiCo India, Coca-Cola India, Bisleri, Diageo and Reliance Industries have come together to launch a packaging waste management venture and aim to mobilise over ₹ 1,000 crore for the purpose.

The idea was developed and incubated by the Packaging Association for Clean Environment (PACE) where the companies will mobilise and converge assets, resources and investment upwards of ₹ 1,000 crores including the existing infrastructure of the member companies and fresh investments. The vision of this venture is to ensure that no recyclable packaging material ends up in landfills by 2025.

The collaboration aims at having a network of 125 material recovery facilities across the country, which will work with 2,500 aggregators over the next 3 years. PepsiCo India President Ahmed El Sheikh, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia President T Krishnakumar and Bisleri CEO Angelo George launched the venture ‘Karo Sambhav-closing material loops’ to create an efficient value chain to collect post-consumer packaging and optimise material recycling processes.

Other major companies like diageo, parle agro, cavin kare, manjushree, reliance industries, sc johnson, ivl-dhunseri, pearl drinks, varun beverages limited, hindustan coca-cola beverages pvt ltd., action alliance for recycling beverage cartons among other are also expected to be actively participate in this venture.

This new initiative will focus more on developing an India-wide ecosystem for plastic waste management by creating win-win partnerships with stakeholders, and applying technology to bring transparency, traceability and scale.