(Image source from: Clubs & Orgs)
There is an increasing pressure on manufacturing industries to reduce plastic, especially for their packaging as the accumulation of plastic wastes sky-rocketing day by day.
This has in turn pushed Fast-Moving Consumer Goods companies to recreate their packaging to make them eco-friendly. The initiative of this change has been brought about by PepsiCo, food and beverage major which has proclaimed that it will launch the first-ever 100% compostable, plant-based packaging for Lays and Kurkure products this year.
"As a responsible leader in the food and beverage industry, our Performance with Purpose 2025 goal is to design all packaging to be recoverable or recyclable, and supports increased recycling of plastic waste," said Ahmed El Sheikh, president & CEO at PepsiCo India with a media source. "India will be among the first countries to pilot this new, sustainable packaging solution developed by PepsiCo."
Coco-Cola as well has launched a plant-based bottles in few markets. "The origin of this plant-based packaging material lies in India," said spokesperson of Coco-Cola India.
The PlantBottle, a fully recyclable Polyethylene Terephthalate Plastics (PET) plastic beverage bottle made from plants partially that looks and functions merely like traditional PET plastic bottle is at present accounting for 30 per cent of company's packaging volume in North America and 7 per cent globally, still might take a spell before it reaches PepsiCo's Indian markets owing to its very broad manufacturing costs.
Even Nestle has joined the eco-friendly trend aiming at 100 per cent reusable and recyclable packaging by 2025.
"Nestle India shares the ambition that no plastic waste should end up discarded in the environment and believes that with the right approach it can be collected or recycled without a detrimental impact. We are committed to finding improved solutions to reduce, reuse and recycle. As a responsible company, we have initiated various projects on waste management by engaging with relevant stakeholders." A Nestle India spokesperson said when asked whether the company is working on sustainable packaging for Maggi.
By Sowmya Sangam
