Manjushree Technopack & Ganesha Ecosphere partner for recycled packaging

The products will be developed and tested jointly by MTL and Ganesha, with requisite approvals from FSSAI, US FDA and European Food Safety Authority.

India’s largest rigid plastics packaging solution provider, backed by Advent International, has entered into a collaboration agreement with the bottle-to-bottle grade recycling division of Ganesha Ecosphere Group (Ganesha, India’s largest plastic bottle recycler) to co-develop and supply food and non-food grade packaging products made of recycled plastics.

The collaboration is the first of its kind in the country and will provide a one stop solution to brands for their rigid plastic packaging needs, in compliance with the impending Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2022 (PWM Rules). The partnership is aimed at providing best-in-class plastic packaging products with upto 100 per cent dosage of recycled plastic. The products will be developed and tested jointly by MTL and Ganesha, with requisite approvals from FSSAI, US FDA and European Food Safety Authority. The partnership will serve the brands in complying with the new PWM rules while also supporting Indian government’s ambitious target of replacing up to 60 per cent of virgin plastic with recycled plastic by FY29. The partnership will help create circular economy and accelerate the adoption of 100 per cent recycled plastic bottles.

At present, use of recycled plastic for packing is in its emerging stages in the country and there are no integrated players engaged in end-to-end operations i.e. from collection of plastic waste to manufacturing of certified food grade packaging products. Brands that aspire to replace virgin plastics with recycled plastics in their packaging products must run numerous tests and trials with recyclers and manufacturers separately and yet struggle to get the right quality. As a one stop solution provider, this collaboration is set to solve this challenge and provide pre-tested and optimised packaging products at scale.

With over 40 years of packaging expertise in India, MTL caters to packaging requirements across FMCG, F&B, home care, personal care, agrochemicals, pharmaceutical and liquor industries. With its current manufacturing capacity of over 200,000 MT per annum across 20 plants spread pan India and annual turnover of around Rs 2,600 crore, MTL is India’s largest rigid plastics packaging company. MTL prioritises environmental care through sustainable practices and has aligned its ESG goals with that of the United Nations. Over the past two years it has successfully reduced its energy and water consumption per tonne of production, developed rainwater harvesting ability of over 60 million litres and sourced ~40 per cent of total energy consumption from renewable sources. Currently, MTL produces rigid plastic packaging products that are 100 per cent recyclable. All of this is reflected in its above industry average ESG rating, as assigned by Dun & Bradstreet.

Ganesha on the other hand is currently India’s largest post-consumer PET waste recycler with an installed capacity of 150,000 MT per annum of different rPET products across 6 locations. Ganesha already works with major global as well as domestic textile brands in providing rPET solutions to the textile Industry and now with its new brand “Go Rewise”, is set to bring circular economy solutions to the packaging Industry. Dedicated for the good of tomorrow, Go Rewise is committed to work towards a circular economy and delivering highest quality rPET products.

Commenting on the collaboration, Thimmaiah Napanda, MD and CEO of Manjushree Technopack, said, “We appreciate the Government of India’s resolve and passion towards building a circular economy and reducing use of virgin plastic in packaging. We intend to be the implementors of this transformation and our collaboration with Ganesha is a significant step in this direction. We are excited to be the country’s first source of end-to-end support and uninterrupted supply of recycled plastic packaging products that will be comparable to virgin grade in quality. With several decades of experience backing both MTL and Ganesha, we are confident of the benefits that will accrue to our end consumers and believe that the advantages of this partnership will scale up as the circular economy grows.”

“As part of our ‘Born Again’ initiative, we targeted and achieved collection of post-consumer plastic waste of up to 6,000 MT. We reprocessed and recycled this waste at our state of art facility into virgin equivalent post-consumer resin, which was then utilised to manufacture high-quality plastic products. We believe our tie up with Ganesha is a big stride in our ESG journey and gives us the ability to recycle and remould PET, the most prevalent polymer type used for food grade packaging. The collaboration is the coming together of two very complimentary forces that will leverage each other’s strengths and benefit the end consumer immensely,” Napanda added.

Sharad Sharma, Managing Director of Ganesha Ecosphere, said, “We are proud that our country is accelerating adoption of circular economy, and building resilience and adaptability to climate risk. With 30 years of experience in plastics recycling and years of R&D in bottle-to-bottle recycling we are ready to support our suppliers, customers and nation to close the plastic recycling loop. For a circular and sustainable supply chain for packaging materials – brands, converters, and recyclers need to collaborate and work together to bridge the current gaps.  Go Rewise’s partnership with MTL will be first of its kind example in the industry and crucial milestone in leap frogging the rPET adoption at scale. Being the largest post-consumer PET waste recyclers in the country, we had taken the challenge to showcase that Indian ecosystem is capable to handle technological break throughs and can produce food grade, consumer safe recycled plastics that perform equal to virgin plastics. The high quality of recyclate and superior performance is unprecedented in the country. This is a remarkable feat that we were able to achieve at our state-of-art facility in Warangal, Telangana, in collaboration with the world’s best recycling technologies, coupled with our decades of experience in process design of handling Indian post-consumer waste.”