Sharrp Ventures, the investment office of the Harsh Mariwala family, and Re Sustainability, a leading integrated sustainability solutions provider, on Tuesday joined hands to launch the plastics circularity initiative in an effort to tackle plastic waste, with plants in Hyderabad, Telangana, and Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
Masood Mallick, management director and group CEO of Re Sustainability, said his company has a 85% stake in the partnership, while Sharrp Ventures has a 15% stake. Harsh Mariwala’s Marico Innovation Foundation will be the implementation partner in the deal, while Sharrp Ventures will “mostly be a silent partner”.
Speaking at the launch, Marico chairman Harsh Mariwala said with an initial investment of Rs 50 crore in the first year, “we want to prevent 15,000 tonne of carbon dioxide emissions annually, recycle 32,000 tonne of plastic waste, and provide livelihood to 2,000 people.” Mariwala added, “I have a lot of confidence that we are on the right path. By increasing the supply of high-quality recycled materials and creating sustainable waste management practices, we are setting a new standard for innovation and responsibility in the industry.”
Masood, agreeing with Mariwala, mentioned that they want to create a viable solution to plastic waste since it’s a “resource problem, economic problem, and geopolitical problem too since we import crude oil that we turn into plastic.” He added: “There is untapped economic value, resource conservation, carbon abatement opportunity as well as pollution mitigation impact associated with every kilogram of waste we generate; harnessing this ‘value’ across all these dimensions by way of this initiative is a significant step towards achieving a more circular FMCG industry in India. By re-evaluating how we manage and repurpose waste, we can transform it into valuable resources, ignite innovation, and pave the way for a cleaner, more sustainable environment and a better future for generations to come.”
The duo said that while these are pilot projects, they want to take the learnings from managing plastic waste to then scale this venture to over 25 cities in the coming years. They added that this is the first prototype of its kind in India, where the focus will be on segregation at the source since the cost of recycling plastics is very high when it gets contaminated with other waste.
The initiative aims to increase supply of high-quality recycled polyolefins for the FMCG industry by producing over 9,000 tonne of recycled polymers each year. Over the next five years, the initiative intends to evolve into a nationwide, large-scale recycled polymer enterprise.