'We Use 90% Recycled Content in Polyester Packaging Film'

Jeevaraj Pillai, Joint president of flexible packaging at UFlex, believes that improved plastic waste collection and recycling is more helpful in fighting the menace of plastic pollution than finding an alternative material to plastic. 

In a conversation with Outlook Business, he elaborates on how UFlex pursues circularity by scaling up the use of recycled content in its packaging applications

This World Environment Day focuses on solutions to plastic pollution and UFlex has been a leader in this aspect. How do you plan to up your game?

At UFlex, we have always believed in three pillars to address plastic waste pollution. They are source reduction, source substitution, and the use of sustainable packaging material. We were the first company, back in 1994, to establish recycling plants where multi-layer (MLP) plastics, considered difficult to recycle, could be treated. Sustainability was not a buzzword back then, but our efforts are bearing fruit today. We are recycling close to 30,000 metric tonnes of plastic waste, setting an example for the industry, the government, and the public. 

When it comes to source substitution, we try to substitute elements of multilayer plastic by way of reducing the thickness or using alternate material. One of the steps we have taken is to recycle polyester (PET) bottles, convert them into a packaging film and use this in the packaging application. This was something we started five years back and today we are using 90% recycled content in polyester packaging film.