India – UFlex, India’s largest flexible packaging company and a global pioneer in polymer sciences, has joined the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (Alliance), a global non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating plastic waste from the environment.
UFlex’s unwavering dedication to addressing the problem of plastic waste, as well as its competence in developing solutions and technology to recover and recycle post-consumer plastic waste and help plastic find a purpose beyond its initial usage, has earned it a membership position with the Alliance.
Through its affiliation, UFlex hopes to contribute to and guide the Alliance and its members on sustainability measures that it has been using for years to alleviate plastic waste issues, therefore globalizing these practices, as well as learning and implementing generally acceptable standards.
With the Alliance’s help, UFlex also plans to promote and drive sustainable measures in the regions where it operates as a packaging company.
Managing plastic waste in the environment
Since its inception in 2019, Alliance has brought together a global network of enterprises, project partners, and supporters from across the plastics value chain. The Alliance collaborates with member organizations all around the world to reduce and manage plastic waste in the environment. To that end, it takes a quadrangular approach to collective action, which includes: development of infrastructure for collection and management of plastic waste; innovation and creation of new technologies to advance a circular economy for plastic waste; education and engagement with various stakeholders to mobilize action toward meaningful solutions; and clean-up of areas through collaboration with NGOs.
Keeping plastic waste out of the environment
Under its global sustainability initiative ‘Project Plastic Fix,’ UFlex expanded its efforts to include post-consumer plastic waste in early 2020 by setting up lines at its headquarters plant in Noida to recycle and upcycle post-consumer MLP mixed plastic waste and PET bottle waste into PCR grade packaging films (PCR PET & PCR PE) and injection moulding equipment. UFlex is expanding its recycling infrastructure by commissioning comparable facilities in Mexico and Poland to recycle plastic trash from local residents. Furthermore, it is working on an enzyme-based biodegradable solution for converting uncollected plastic garbage into biomass.
UFlex is currently investing and has recently invested close to $10 million USD in various initiatives undertaken at its overseas and Indian plants to repurpose plastic waste; and as a Board Member of the Alliance, remains committed to investments to help the Alliance define its programs for reducing mismanaged plastic waste and help achieve the common agenda to keep plastic waste out of the environment. UFlex will devote its resources, knowledge, and capital toward developing novel sustainable packaging materials that solve the issue of plastic waste, as well as implementing effective waste management and recycling systems.
