Dabur becomes first Indian plastic waste positive FMCG company

Dabur has become the first Indian consumer goods company to achieve this landmark. “Today, Dabur collects, processes and recycles more plastic waste that Dabur sells in its product packaging in a year, thereby becoming a plastic waste positive enterprise,” said Rahul Awasthi head - operations Dabur India.

“Our team has worked towards not just collecting plastic waste from our cities, towns and villages across the country, but also preventing the waste from reaching the 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,” 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 the flagship community-led initiative, which is currently operational in Delhi-NCR with more than 150 housing societies associated with this project. 

“We have collected 41,329-kg of plastic waste from households in Delhi-NCR alone under this project in 2022-23 alone,” Awasthi added.

Dabur had set the target of collecting, processing and recycling 35,000 MT of post-consumer plastic waste from across India in the year 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,” Awasthi said.

Dabur’s plastic waste management initiative was rolled out in the year 2017-18 as part of the Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rule 2016, 2018 (amended). Under this initiative, Dabur has till 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 rag pickers in 150 cities across India. Dabur has also put in place an audit mechanism to ensure compliance to the state and central regulations and guidelines on plastic waste management.

Dabur is a registered brand-owner with Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) since November 2018 and with all State Pollution Control Boards across the country. Rahul Awasthi said, “We take our impact on the natural resources in the communities where we operate seriously and have put in place measures to not merely comply with regulations but to responsibly take care of our country and the planet, preserve its beauty and resources for future generations. Every action at Dabur is a step towards a sustainable future.”