Dabur becomes first Indian ’Plastic Waste Positive’ FMCG Company

Dabur recycles 35,000 MT of Post-Consumer Plastic Waste, becomes the first Indian consumer goods company to achieve this landmark.

Dabur India Ltd., the largest Ayurveda-based company in India, has now achieved the status of “Plastic Waste Positive Company” in India after collecting, processing, and recycling 35,000 MT of post-consumer plastic trash from all over the country in the fiscal year 2022–2023. This significant accomplishment was revealed on the day designated as World Environment Day.

Dabur is now the first FMCG company in India to reach this milestone. According to Dabur India’s Head-Operations Rahul Awasthi, “Today, Dabur gathers, processes, and recycles more waste plastic than Dabur sells in its product packaging in a year, thereby becoming a ‘Plastic Waste Positive’ comapny.

“It is a matter of great pride for the entire Dabur family, who have worked towards not just collecting plastic waste from our cities, towns and villages across the country, but also preventing the waste from reaching our landfills and oceans. This includes all types of plastic waste, from PET and HDPE bottles, PP caps and labels to multi-layered plastics and beverage cartons. We are also committed to promoting circularity in the value chain to reduce its carbon footprint and achieve Net Zero in the entire value chain by 2045,” Mr. Awasthi said.

Alongside, Dabur has also been running community-level projects to build awareness about waste segregation at source and involving the community in its plastic waste management programmes. “My 10 Kg Plastic is our flagship community-led initiative, which is currently operational in Delhi-NCR with more than 150 housing societies associated with this project.”

“We intend to progressively roll it out in other states and cities too. We have collected 41,329 Kg plastic waste from households in Delhi-NCR alone under the My 10 Kg Plastic project in 2022-23 alone. We also run ‘Save The Environment’ campaign in several states to promote use of cotton carry bags, besides several capacity building programmes for waste collectors across the country,” Mr. Awasthi added.

Dabur set itself the target of collecting, processing, and recycling 35,000 MT of post-consumer plastic waste from across India in 2022-23. “We work with government-registered recycling partners across the country and have taken progressive actions to reduce plastic waste in cities, towns, and villages while also raising awareness about plastic waste management within the community. The collected plastic waste is being sent to different Recyclers, Waste-to-Energy Plants, and Cement Kilns,” Mr. Awasthi said.

Dabur’s Plastic Waste Management initiative was rolled out in 2017-18 as part of the Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rule 2016, 2018 (amended). Under this initiative, Dabur has, to date, collected a total of over 89,000 MT of plastic waste (Recyclable and Non-Recyclable) direct from the end-users with the help of around local ragpickers in 150 cities across India. Dabur has also established a robust audit mechanism to ensure complete transparency and compliance with the state and central regulations and guidelines on Plastic Waste Management.

Dabur India’s FMCG portfolio includes: Dabur Chyawanprash, Dabur Honey, Dabur Honitus, Dabur Lal Tail and Dabur Pudin Hara in the Healthcare category; Dabur Amla, Vatika and Dabur Red Paste in the Personal care space; and Réal in the Food & Beverages category.

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