Latest news with #EPR
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
UFlex introduces single-pellet solution for food packaging
UFlex has launched an FSSAI-compliant single-pellet solution, integrating recycled and virgin PET for food and beverage packaging, simplifying EPR compliance for brands. This innovation eliminates the need for mixing materials, aligning with new FSSAI guidelines mandating 30% recycled content in rigid plastic packaging by FY26. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Flexible packaging and solutions maker UFlex on Thursday introduced an FSSAI-compliant single-pellet solution for use of recycled PET for food and beverages new product integrates recycled PET with virgin PET in a single pellet, doing away with the need for manufacturers to buy and mix different materials to make bottles, containers or packaging materials, especially for food and single-pellet solution will be a game-changer for food and beverage brands striving to meet Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) compliance under the new FSSAI guidelines, Ashish Saxena, Joint President - Packaging Films Business at UFlex Ltd , said in a statement."As regulations become more robust, we aim to set the benchmark for responsible production and scalable, sustainable packaging solutions in India and beyond," he said, adding that the company's recent announcement of Rs 317 crore investment in two new recycling plants in Noida is a strong reaffirmation of its commitment to India's plastic waste management April 1, 2025, the new rules mandate that brands using category-1 rigid plastic packaging, such as PET bottles, incorporate at least 30 per cent recycled content by FY26, the statement said.
Hans India
2 days ago
- Business
- Hans India
UFlex Introduces FSSAI compliant Single-Pellet Solution for Food Packaging
UFlex, India's largest multinational flexible packaging and solutions company, has announced the launch of its latest innovation, an FSSAI-compliant single-pellet solution for the use of recycled PET in food and beverage packaging. This innovative product integrates recycled PET with virgin PET in a single pellet of high purity and mechanical and thermal stability. The packages produced from this resin are of high clarity, strength, and lower acetaldehyde content. Importantly, this resin solution is compatible with existing PET manufacturing lines enabling a seamless transition to rPET without investing in any new infrastructure. Aligned with the recent FSSAI guidelines that support the Government of India's Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework, UFlex's single-pellet solution on offers a fully compliant, ready-to-implement op on for FMCG companies striving to meet their sustainability commitments. Effective April 1, 2025, the new rules mandate that brands using Category-1 rigid plastic packaging, such as PET bottles, incorporate at least 30% recycled content by FY26. The innovation complies with FSSAI's definition of Food Contact Material-recycled PET (FCM-rPET), which requires a validated decontamination process to ensure the material is safe for direct food contact. UFlex's solution meets both national and international safety standards, including approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). Commenting on the launch, Ashish Saxena, Joint President – Packaging Films Business, UFlex Limited, said, 'Since our inception, we have always been committed to pioneering sustainable packaging solutions. We are pleased to offer our latest innovation—the single-pellet solution, which will be a game-changer for food and beverage brands striving to meet EPR compliance under the new FSSAI guidelines. Our recent announcement of ₹317 crore investment in two new recycling plants in Noida is a strong reaffirmation of our commitment to India's plastic waste management vision. As regulations become more robust, we aim to set the benchmark for responsible production and scalable, sustainable packaging solutions in India and beyond.' UFlex is the first and only Indian company to receive USFDA approval for its technology and capacity to recycle all three materials: recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), recycled polyethylene (rPE), and recycled polypropylene (rPP) for use in food packaging. With a global recycling capacity of 72,300 metric tonnes per annum (MTPA), and an additional 39,600 MTPA set to be commissioned soon, UFlex has established one of the most robust recycling ecosystems in the industry. To date, the company has recycled over 5 billion post-consumer PET bottles, converting them into high-quality raw materials for sustainable packaging solutions. In FY25 alone, UFlex recycled 8,200 metric tonnes of mixed flexible waste, advancing its circular economy goals. It has established recycling plants across India, Poland, Egypt, and Mexico, processing a wide range of post-consumer plastic waste. It is the only Indian company working on innovative solutions for mixed flexible waste and PCR applications both in India and globally. For queries: [email protected]
Daily News Egypt
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily News Egypt
Waste management reform expands with private sector involvement: Environment Minister
Egypt's Minister of Environment, Yasmine Fouad, announced on Wednesday that the country's solid waste management system has witnessed significant progress in recent years, driven by close coordination between the government, parliament, and private sector. She revealed that Egypt's recycling rate has risen from 10% in 2018 to 37% in 2024, with plans to reach 60% by 2027. Speaking during a session of the Local Administration Committee in Parliament—chaired by MP Ahmed El-Sigini and attended by key ministers and officials—Fouad credited the Waste Management Law (Law 202/2020) as a cornerstone for introducing circular economy practices and expanding private sector involvement. 'When we began, there were only two private contracts in the recycling sector. Today, we have 36 contracts across the value chain—from collection and transportation to processing and recycling,' Fouad noted. She highlighted the growing role of the private sector in waste-to-energy projects, including landfill gas recovery and sludge-to-power generation. A government-approved feed-in tariff, coordinated with the ministries of electricity, housing, and local development, is expected to further incentivize investment in this area. Among the key projects mentioned were the landfill gas recovery initiative at the Salam landfill site and the sludge-to-energy conversion project at the Abu Rawash wastewater treatment plant. Addressing funding challenges, Fouad called for the full activation of financing mechanisms embedded in the law, including allocations from property taxes, surpluses from the Local Development Fund, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes. She pointed to the launch of Egypt's first EPR initiative in February, initially targeting single-use plastic bags and eventually expanding to packaging materials and metal products. These measures, she said, are expected to provide a consistent revenue stream for the waste management system. Fouad also highlighted the financial turnaround of the Waste Management Regulatory Agency, which has become an economic authority and recorded a surplus of EGP 45m. The minister reviewed progress in the signing and execution of waste collection and recycling service contracts across Egypt and addressed critical infrastructure needs in Giza and Qalyubeya governorates. Committee Chair El-Sigini congratulated Fouad on her recent appointment to a prominent international environmental post and praised her leadership in tackling Egypt's longstanding waste challenges. 'Parliament has been a committed partner in this journey since 2015,' he said, underscoring the importance of consolidating and expanding the gains achieved to ensure long-term sustainability.
Harvard Business Review
3 days ago
- Business
- Harvard Business Review
How Circularity Can Be a Strategic Response to Tariffs
Globalization is fracturing. Tariffs, trade wars, resource nationalism, and supply chain shocks are no longer rare disruptions—they're the new normal. The past few weeks alone have seen swings in U.S. tariffs and China's shifting stance on rare earth minerals, underscoring a broader trend: global commerce is increasingly volatile, redrawn by geopolitics, climate, and conflict. Trade fracturing goes beyond tariffs, however. Governments are increasingly imposing policies to favor domestic sourcing, to restrict access to critical materials, and to steer trade towards geopolitical allies—all of which companies need to navigate. From Europe's carbon-linked import levies to Indonesia's nickel ore export ban, even recycling laws—over 30 related to critical minerals enacted globally since 2022—look beyond environmental outcomes to advance industrial and political goals. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes, for instance, reward companies that keep value creation within national or regional borders. Traditional responses—like dual sourcing and near-shoring—still matter. But an underused lever is the circular economy: reusing, repairing, remanufacturing, and recycling to reduce dependence on volatile global supply chains. Often dismissed as a sustainability play, circularity—done well—is a strategic hedge. It cuts material imports, opens new revenue streams, and builds customer loyalty. And it's a strategy that many firms have quietly embraced to survive and thrive. Take British Sugar, the UK's largest sugar producer. By turning byproducts from sugar production into revenue streams—from animal feed to soil conditioners—the company reduced waste and boosted margins. This shift did not begin as a sustainability goal, but rather a strategic response to changing market dynamics and price volatility. That kind of systems thinking—designing for autonomy, flexibility, and resource efficiency—is now critical for building a durable competitive advantage. Here are four circular strategies to build resilience. Secure Resources Locally Trade barriers and concentrated supply chains make it harder and costlier to access critical inputs. For example, rare earth elements and other strategic minerals foundational to the modern economy are increasingly subject to strategic controls including by the U.S., China, the European Union, and Japan. Circularity helps mitigate this exposure. Urban mining—recovering materials from waste streams—helps companies reduce reliance on volatile import streams, turning waste into tomorrow's resources. Electronic waste alone contains $91 billion in metals. With the right innovations, such closed-loop strategies complement domestic production, while also cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80%. Companies like Umicore, Rolls-Royce and Cyclic Materials are already capitalizing on extracting critical materials from end-of-life items. Circularity also strengthens the resilience of the clean energy transition. While renewables boosts energy security by reducing reliance on fossil fuel imports, scaling renewable energy also increases exposure of countries to mineral import risks. Solar panel circularity alone could unlock an $80 billion market, helping to secure benefits of decarbonization without trading one dependency for another. Unlock Cost-Competitive Secondary Markets When tariffs drive up costs of imports, companies typically must either pass costs to customers or absorb a margin hit. Circularity offers a third path: the resale of repaired, refurbished, or remanufactured goods. If reprocessing is done locally or in trade-aligned regions, secondary offerings can sidestep tariffs while undercutting new imports on price. Shares of secondhand retailers jumped following the recent U.S. tariff announcement, reflecting anticipation of growing consumer demand. Beyond a pricing advantage, secondary market offerings also extend asset lifecycles and capture value that would otherwise be lost. Companies like IKEA see circular material flows, combined with regional supply chains, as ways to build resilience and cost efficiency ways, if done at scale. Diversify Revenue Through Services Businesses reliant on one-time sales of imported products are vulnerable when trade disruptions delay shipments or inflate costs. Circular service models—subscription, product-as-a-service, or performance-based contracts—shift the focus from selling new units to maximizing revenue from existing assets. Take Swapfiets, which provides bicycles through a monthly subscription, inclusive of repair and maintenance. By designing their bicycles for durability, repairability, and use of recycled materials—core principles of circular design—Swapfiets' bicycles last longer and can be reused across multiple customers, generating more recurring revenue from the same assets. Separately, in electronics, product-as-a-service models could unlock $566 billion in savings globally, while cutting emissions by nearly 15%. Deepen Customer and Supplier Relationships Circularity naturally fosters stronger partnerships. Product-as-a-service and take-back programs transform one-off sales into longer-term engagements and predictable revenue, generate valuable usage data, and incentivize better product design. In uncertain times, deepening trust and loyalty with customers and suppliers can become an advantage. Consider John Deere. The company leases farm equipment embedded with IoT technology that tracks real-time field performance. This data helps refine product designs, reduce material use with modular components, and secures multi-year service relationships with customers. Success required tighter collaboration with suppliers to enable circular design and manage reverse logistics, fostering more integrated, resilient partnerships. . . . If circularity is so advantageous, particularly amidst the rising tide of geopolitical forces, why is adoption limited? Internally, many companies still face misaligned incentives—P&Ls reward unit sales over lifecycle value, while reverse logistics systems remain underdeveloped. Executives may hesitate to back long-payback investments without immediate business cases. Externally, regulatory complexity and classification challenges add friction. Leading firms are breaking through by linking circularity to strategic objectives, build accountability through circular KPIs (like revenue from circular offerings), and prioritize piloting and learning before scaling. Crucially, they treat circularity not as a checklist—but as a transformation.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Time of India
Auto, cement, and refinery sectors outline net zero roadmaps amid rising emissions at ET Net Zero Forum 2025
New Delhi: Indian oil refineries have committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2046, ahead of the global 2050 target, as the sector currently contributes 2.55 per cent of national emissions and emits around 46 million metric tonnes (MMT) of CO₂ annually, said Gaurang Mishra, Joint Director, Centre for High Technology (CHT), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. He was speaking at the panel discussion on "Building Climate-Resilient Industries: Strategies for High-Emission Sectors' at the ET India Net Zero Forum 2025. Mishra said Indian refineries have moved from 10,000 parts per million (ppm) sulfur content to under 10 ppm. 'As of now, Indian PSE refineries emit around 46 MMT of CO₂ annually, with capacity at 258 MMTPA—expected to reach 310 MMTPA by 2030. Without intervention, emissions could rise to 67 MMT, but we have a clear roadmap. Through energy efficiency, fuel transition to gas, electrification, green hydrogen, and CCUS, we're taking a multi-pronged approach to drive this transition.' In the cement sector, carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) and renewable energy are key strategies being deployed. 'Since 50–55 per cent of cement sector emissions come from the process itself, we're also focusing on carbon capture and utilisation. We're setting up a CCU facility at our eastern plant under a DST project, and earlier partnered with ADB for a feasibility study on large-scale CCU,' said Anupam Badola, Deputy Chief Sustainability Officer, Dalmia Cement (Bharat). He said, 'In renewable energy, we've taken several steps—be it waste heat recovery-based power generation at our cement plants or setting up solar power through supportive captive policies. As of FY25, we've achieved 36 per cent renewable energy transition, and within a year, we aim to reach nearly 60%. Some plants have already crossed 70–80%, depending on regulatory support.' Auto manufacturers also highlighted the importance of measuring actual use-phase emissions. 'In the auto sector, 97 per cent of a vehicle's carbon footprint begins the day it hits the road. Without accurate measurement and mapping, much of what we hear about net zero remains theoretical,' said Thakur S Pherwani, Chief Sustainability Officer, TVS Motor Company. He added, 'Even clean energy sources like solar, wind, or batteries carry long-term environmental costs. Battery waste is a growing concern—we must build strong recycling and upcycling systems before it becomes a crisis. With EPR norms now extending beyond plastic to tyres, rubber, and metals, OEMs are shouldering rising responsibility, which could impact EV affordability.' Mohit Raj, Senior General Manager - Business Development & Sustainability at PIL, stressed the importance of natural gas as a transition fuel. 'We're doing everything possible to reduce emissions, and the entire oil and gas sector is aligned on this. Natural gas, while a fossil fuel, remains a crucial low-emission transition fuel on the road to net zero. We've made major investments in LNG terminals, pipelines, refineries, and city gas distribution networks. It's essential that we fully optimise these assets before moving to the next phase of the net zero journey,' he said. The panel discussion featured detailed accounts from leading industrial sectors on the strategies, investments, and technologies being adopted to cut emissions and align with India's 2070 net zero target.
