At the 9th Speciality Films & Flexible Packaging Global Summit – 2022, Ashok Chaturvedi, chairman and managing director, UFlex, said, “There is no alternative to multi-layer flexible packaging. So, we have to look at the solutions to tackle its waste.”
Terming mono-layer packaging solution as another myth, Chaturvedi said that it doesn’t help in reducing plastic waste. He cautioned in his keynote speech that if we keep believing that monomer is the answer to reducing waste, we will end up spending another couple of years in it before going back to square one because it will not reduce waste. “Flexible packaging waste will never get reduced unless we recycle it,” he said.
“Recycling is the only answer whether it is mechanical or chemical. Big companies are claiming that they are zero carbon neutral but still the waste is going up and it will continue unless we recycle waste,” he added. “Collecting flexible packaging waste is a mammoth task – but once you are able to collect it, you will be able to recycle it as well easily. I don’t have any doubt that if recyclers can get the raw material [plastic waste], they can definitely recycle it. We did this 25 years ago and it is still working very well. At all our plants, we have set up a recycling center and all the waste that we produce and whatever we can get nearby, we are recycling it and producing new plastic items.”
During his speech, Chaturvedi lauded the strict EPR rules laid by the government. However, he said that the government should also help in plastic waste collection. Chaturvedi even urged the government to work with municipal bodies – of their own or under a PPP model – to collect plastic waste.
Highlighting the universal problem of the unavailability of plastic feedstock, Chaturvedi said that it’s time we focused on waste collection. Solutions to recycle this waste – be it rigid plastic, monolayer or multi-layer plastic – are already there. Hence, recycling is not the main issue. In his keynote speech, Chaturvedi even shared how his company’s pyrolysis plant has been a failure and economically unviable due to the unavailability of plastic waste. India needs over 1000 centers to collect waste plastics. The responsibility of such centers will be to provide waste plastics, both flexible and rigid, to recyclers. “So, I request everyone to focus on collecting plastic waste.”
In October 2022, UFlex will commission a multi-layer flexible packaging recycling center in Poland and another in Mexico by the end of this year. The cost of the Mexico center will be close to USD 25-26 million. Chaturvedi said that the plant in Mexico would have positive EBITDA.
