UFlex ventured into sustainable packaging way back in the mid-90s. The chairman and the board—when the company was much smaller—were constantly travelling for machinery. During that period, India was fully dependent upon imported machinery for packaging manufacturing.
Apoorvshree Chaturvedi, Director – Global Operations, UFlex Group, says that during those travels, they saw many machine suppliers exhibiting equipment specifically designed for the handling of plastic waste. Coming from India, the chairman and the board had the foresight to understand that this would become a problem in India in the future, especially as city municipal budgets are not equipped to handle high levels of urbanisation.
Chaturvedi observes that if one looks at post-2005 as a benchmark, India’s story is defined by increasing urbanisation. He explains the value-led model where, currently, 65–70% of the population is employed in agriculture; for India to become a middle-income country, that figure needs to drop to about 40–45%. This shift means more people move to cities, consumption rises, and more waste is generated. He asserts that this general theme has been prevalent at the senior level and amongst the board for a long time.
Consumer Shifts
The issue ultimately boils down to consumers, particularly in India with its demographic dividend of a younger generation. Chaturvedi states that Indian consumers are extremely sensitised and desire great status. In terms of urban standards, he believes the Indian people no longer want dirty cities or cities with poorly functioning waste management protocols. He notes that private players are incentivised to use waste management technologies, allowing for a healthier organisational structure, as the idea that one can organise now and clean up later is ineffective.
Innovation Frontiers
Chaturvedi considers one of the first frontiers to be scaled is to show the industry that current materials can be recycled. He argues that the idea of changing packaging design from the ground up to invent entirely new materials is misplaced. He maintains there are enough materials today that perform well and cost-effectively which can be successfully put back into the value chain—either into the food value chain or into organised plastic articles like injection-moulded furniture, which do not cause environmental damage.
Secondly, Chaturvedi advocates against over-designing packaging. He suggests that packaging design standards can change so that what was over-designed in the past is reduced. For instance, if a better material exists today that provides the functionality of three layers in just two, the plastic content is reduced while maintaining the same performance. Thirdly, he notes that plastic barrier qualities are improving, meaning aluminium foil may no longer be needed in many applications. While foil provides a good barrier, it makes packaging harder to recycle because its melting point is extremely high, making it difficult to salvage combined materials. The main idea, according to Chaturvedi, is for the industry to grow plastic production hand-in-hand with recycling; growing production without recycling facilities will cause problems down the line.
Value Chain
In terms of the value chain, Chaturvedi says that the problem with main inputs like resins is not severe because recycled resins can be used for most materials. Within the plant itself, there is no sustainability challenge because waste is recycled internally. He points out that new machines are highly energy-efficient, using roughly half the energy to produce a unit of plastic compared to 15 years ago.
However, he identifies the main challenge as the recovery of transport materials from customers. He notes that a euro pallet costs a couple of hundred Euros, and if customers in Europe return them, they can be reused 15 to 20 times, significantly reducing the sustainability exposure per unit. He believes the focus should be on incentivising customers and suppliers to exchange materials so that companies with recycling capabilities can reuse them. He asserts that the industry is making significant progress in operational production and will continue to do so.
ESG Integration
Regarding Environmental, Social, and Governance factors, Chaturvedi insists that for the packaging industry, ESG is definitely not a tick-box exercise. He explains that public understanding of plastics has reached a point where, without a positive ESG footprint and active recycling or energy reduction, customers will eventually lose interest, and companies will be pushed out of the market. He describes ESG as part of the operational posture of modern companies. He states that whether a company is Indian, Chinese, European, or American, those in the packaging industry cannot take a light approach to ESG.
Global Comparison
He observes that the Indian industry is much faster than the global industry in trying sustainable initiatives or product ideas. In the UK and Europe, he finds progress extremely slow, suggesting the talk is much bigger than the actual movement on the ground regarding changing materials. He mentions that the UK has moved towards paper and plastic combinations for perceived sustainability, yet these are inherently not recyclable. He notes that a full plastic laminate or a pure paper laminate is preferable, as combining the two creates a situation where recycling is nearly impossible.
Chaturvedi concludes that the only major challenge in India is that public utilities and state or city-level recycling facilities are not yet equipped to handle the waste. He believes it is up to vendors to set up that capacity at their own cost to demonstrate in key cities that it can be done.
