Procter & Gamble India has announced that it has become ‘plastic waste neutral’ in the past year (April 2021 – March 2022). The company claims that it has collected, processed, and recycled over 19,000 MT of post-consumer plastic packaging waste from across the country which is more than the amount of plastic packaging in its products sold in a year. With this announcement, the company is among the first few FMCG companies in India to achieve plastic waste neutrality.
The company is working with recycling partners across 75 cities in India to collect plastic which is then sent to different recyclers, waste to energy plants, and cement kilns. In addition to recycling, the company has also made a deliberate effort to reduce the packaging material and in the last 5 years has reduced usage of packaging material by more than 5,000 MT.
The company made this announcement during its ‘It’s Our Home Sustainability Summit’ held in Mumbai on 31 March 2022. During the summit, P&G India also announced that it will set up two more in-house solar plants at its manufacturing sites in Goa and Mandideep in India. This is in addition to the existing in-house solar plant that the company set up at its Hyderabad manufacturing site in 2021. With this, P&G will be among the first few FMCG companies in India to have three in-house solar plants across its manufacturing sites.
Madhusudan Gopalan, CEO, Procter & Gamble – Indian Sub-Continent said, “We are proud of the significant progress we have made on environmental sustainability, and achieving ‘plastic waste neutrality’ is a key milestone in this journey. Plastic waste does not belong in the environment, and we will continue to partner with multiple stakeholders in our efforts to reduce and recycle packaging waste.” He further added, “We are also taking a deliberate approach to reducing the impact of our operations, and setting up in-house solar plants is a step in this direction. We have made strong progress across our brands, our supply chain, our operations with support from our partners and employees. We are fully committed to making a positive impact in the world and creating a sustainable future for generations to come.”