Plastic has become an integral part of our daily lives. Globally, a million plastic bottles are purchased and consumed every minute with over five trillion plastic bags being consumed every year. Out of the total plastic produced, 50% is single-use plastic only which is used just once and then discarded.
And it comes with a cost – severe damages to our ecosystem. This is where Banyan Nation came into the picture to solve the plastic waste. In an interview with TheCSRUniverse, Rashi Agrawal, Director of Partnerships, Banyan Nation shares how the company is solving the plastic problem through recycling and helping brands use recycled plastic.
Excerpts from the Interview:
Q: Tell us about Banyan Nation and its ongoing CSR and sustainability projects?
A: Banyan Nation is an award-winning, vertically integrated plastics recycling company that helps global brands use more recycled plastic instead of virgin plastic.
Banyan leverages mobile technology to map, integrate and train thousands of informal recyclers to produce premium quality plastics. Through its fully digitized and traceable informal supply chain, Banyan collects discarded HDPE and PP and utilizes its proprietary plastics cleaning technology to remove product and packaging contaminants at its state-of-the-art recycling plant in Hyderabad, India. Banyan’s recycled granules are comparable to virgin HDPE plastics in quality and performance.
Banyan Nation is the only Indian startup to receive the Circulars People's Choice Award (2018) and be recognized as a Technology Pioneer (2021) by the World Economic Forum. Banyan Nation has also been inducted into the APAC Cleantech 25 list (2022). Banyan Nation is the proud recipient of the Social Enterprise Award at the Economic Times Startup Awards (2022) and is also recognized as a Climate Warrior at the Forbes India Leadership Awards (2023).
CSR and sustainability is not something we do as a side project. Doing good for the planet and people is built into the DNA of our company. We chose to work in a model where we integrate informal sector workers into our supply chain through innovative use of technology, rather than displacing them by aping solutions from the West. We have also designed our manufacturing process to cause the least amount of strain on natural resources. We recycle 100% of the water we use in our process and have invested in energy efficient and zero emission manufacturing technologies.
Q: How is Banyan Nation solving India's plastic problem?
A: Banyan is giving a new life to discarded plastics.This helps in two key ways: one, it reduces the amount of plastics flowing into our waterways and lands. Two, it reduces the need for virgin plastics which are made from fossil fuels.
Q: 18 states including Maharashtra, Himachal have banned sale, use and manufacturing of plastic bags. How effective has it become so far? Is banning production, usage and sale of plastic going to help the planet?
A: Yes, this is a great step by the Indian government. Our focus as a society should be to reduce the use of plastics wherever possible – single-use plastics such as carry bags is one such area. Where the packaging is critical for the long-term use of products – such as shampoos and other personal care items, we should focus on recycling efforts. There is no silver bullet solution – we need to work on all fronts – reducing the use of plastic in the first place where possible, recycling as much as we can, and if the first two are not possible, then collecting and recovering energy from plastics.
Q: Who's responsible for plastic pollution - the producer or the consumer?
A: Both the producer and the consumer must share the responsibility. The consumer is responsible for safe disposal of the plastic packaging, whereas the producer needs to take responsibility to ensure that end-of-life packaging meets the right treatment – i.e. recycling or co-processing, with emphasis on recycling wherever technically possible. Producers also need to take responsibility for designing packaging and products for recyclability.
Q: Many advocate single-use plastic products, however, they also have severe environmental, social, economic and health consequences. What's your take on this?
A: I believe we should identify applications where we can do without plastics. For example, the usage time for a plastic straw is the 3 mins it takes you to gulp a glass full of a beverage, but it takes centuries before it degrades – we can surely live without plastic straws. There are similarly many other applications where we need to rethink the use of plastics without a huge compromise on convenience. And where this is not possible, we must ensure that the plastics are recyclable and will ultimately make it back into some product’s supply chain in a circular economy.
Q: We are consuming millions and zillions of micro plastics daily which has severe health implications including Cancer. In your opinion, what's the solution to this?
A: We are! And this is a severe crisis. At Banyan, we ensure that we recover all the micro plastics generated by our process and ensure that these are responsibly disposed. We need to be very mindful about our consumption. We need to ensure that plastics are manufactured, used, and recycled responsibly. We also need to be mindful that in our zeal to “solve” the plastic crisis we do not create more problems down the line. For example – have we studied the impact of all the so-called bio-degradable plastics that simply turn the existing plastics into small micro plastics rather than actually degrading, or the impact of plastic roads on our ground water and land?
Q: Plastic dumped in the landfills degenerates and makes its way into our food chain. What's the solution to it?
A: Don’t dump plastics into landfills! – that’s the solution. Plastics should be recovered and recycled when possible and used for energy (responsibly) when they can’t be.
Q: Is recycling the ultimate solution given that plastic can be recycled only 7-9 times only?
A: It is by no means the only solution, or the silver bullet. But it is one solution among many to reduce the impact on our environment and natural resources. With over 10 million tons of plastic waste being generated, we need as many solutions as possible to arrest the problem.
Q: What solution do we have for the plastic pollution in marine life?
A: We must arrest the pollution as source and not let it enter the waterways and oceans in the first place.
Q: While the plastic waste is a global concern, the plastic industry is a major contributor to the economic growth. What's that middle way to save the planet from it then?
A: Plastics have solved many problems – it is only with the help of plastic syringes that the world vaccinated its populations at lightning speeds and came out of what could have been an even more catastrophic pandemic. Plastic helps deliver food and essential supplies to remote parts of the world. But we must use this resource responsibly – we must recognize that it needs responsible end-of-life treatment, and we must create the systems needed to enable that treatment with minimal negative environmental and societal impact.
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