Flexible packaging, especially in small formats, are extremely popular in the Indian packaging landscape because of their accessibility and affordability to households with limited disposable incomes. A victim of their own success, they are found littered in rural and urban ecosystems because they are lightweight, small and sold in high volumes.
Once littered, they are hard to collect, sort, aggregate, and transport, because they do not fetch a price worth the effort. If collected at all, they are sent to landfill or cement kilns in the absence of viable end-markets.
The India Plastics Pact, a pre-competitive platform for stakeholders along the entire plastics value chain to collaborate on, has identified small format packaging as an area that needs to be understood better to unlock the Pact’s ambitious goal of creating a circular plastics economy.
Two reports have been planned, with Phase 1 of the report containing high-level inferences indicating broad solution-areas; in Phase 2, a deeper analysis will help develop focused solutions, accounting for not just the packaging composition but also demographic factors, products and behavioural aspects.
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The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the development of India, partnering Industry, Government, and civil society, through advisory and consultative processes. For more than 125 years, CII has been engaged in shaping India’s development journey and works proactively on transforming Indian Industry’s engagement in national development. CII engages closely with Government on policy issues and interfaces with thought leaders to enhance efficiency, competitiveness and business opportunities for Industry through a wide portfolio of specialized services and strategic global linkages.
The India Plastics Pact is a collaboration between the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and WWF India that unites businesses, governments, NGOs and citizens to create a circular plastics economy in India. The CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development (CESD) anchors the India Plastics Pact, within CII. The initiative is supported by WRAP, a global NGO based in the UK. Launched in September 2021, the India Plastics Pact is the first Plastics Pact in Asia. As of June 2022, there are 13 Plastics Pacts spread across the globe. 42 organizations are currently part of the India Plastics Pact. The Pact works on all plastic resins at all stages of the plastics value chain.