Indian businesses can leverage this spirit of resourcefulness and aversion to waste to make circular economy a reality
If you look around your kitchen, you will notice decade-old glass jars that once held pickles and jams being used as storage containers for your spices or snacks. The concept of a circular economy is not new to India. We have always been a land of resourcefulness. ‘Jugaad’ is deeply ingrained in our way of life. Similarly, the circular economy concept is about being resourceful, eliminating waste, and using resources for as long as possible.
Indian businesses can leverage this spirit of resourcefulness and aversion to waste to make circular economy a reality. However, business can’t do this alone. It will take the government, people, and businesses to work together to make this possible.
Let’s take the example of solid waste management. Urban India generates nearly 42 million tonnes of solid municipal waste annually. To put that in perspective, this is equal to 35,000 trucks getting full of waste per minute. Our per capita generation of waste is pegged to double within the next three decades. Solid waste is a tricky issue, with multiple interdependent and complex factors.
The government of India has not only acknowledged this challenge but stands unparalleled in its ambitious approach to solid waste management rules and post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastics. The policy push for Plastic Waste Management (PWM 2022) rules demands companies reuse 10 percent to 60 percent recycled plastic in packaging based on plastic grade category. The focus on PCR is not just about compliance; it's about the transformation into sustainable packaging and moving towards circular economy.
As a first step for businesses, implementing a product Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can help evaluate their entire product impact, from raw material extraction to disposal. LCAs help to understand and identify opportunities to reduce the environmental impact of products, such as using more sustainable raw materials or redesigning products to improve recyclability. Let’s get back to the PCR use regulations example, for this, companies need to invest in R&D and design to incorporate recycled plastics in their packaging. Further, to ensure high quality recycled plastic is available, companies need to design their packaging in a way that is easily recyclable, like using a single type of plastic, avoiding dyes, and using non-toxic inks for print labels.
However, the government policy push and business innovation for sustainable packaging are only the beginning. The ultimate challenge is creating a seamless and transparent linkage from users segregating this plastic waste when disposing of the product after use, the plastic waste then being collected and sent to processing, and finally the same plastic waste making its way back to packaging and hence closing the loop of circular economy. This will continue to remain a challenge until waste generators, which are all of us, shoulder some of these responsibilities. Because once plastic waste misses out on being segregated at source, it simply ends up in the landfill.
The circular economy is not just about government policies and business practices but also about people and their behaviours. Here, companies can collaborate with the government and help build scientific waste management infrastructure. In turn, local authorities can educate and enforce regulations requiring households to segregate waste. If companies don’t get involved in the ecosystem of waste, they will not be able to unlock the potential value of their waste and how they can leverage that to close the loop of the circular economy.
Several big brands have embraced and closed the loop of circular economy initiatives. For example, Burger King launched reusable packaging to reduce the amount of plastic waste it generates. They charge a small deposit fee to consumers to use reusable cups and containers and consumers can earn it back when they deposit the packaging at any of their outlets. At Godrej, the Oil Palm processing operations send no waste to landfill as all parts of the raw material are used for extracting oil or products like biomass that are used back in the process as fuel.
Circular economy is a collaborative effort. It needs the government to create supportive policies, businesses to innovate and manufacture sustainable products, and people to change their behaviours. When these three come together, we can close the loop on the circular economy and make way for a new sustainable normal.
(Gayatri Divecha is the Head of CSR at Godrej Good & Green.)