UFlex sets up plastic packaging recycling lines in India

Noida, India-based UFlex Limited has announced it is setting up two washing and recycling lines in that Indian city to recycle polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and multilayer packaging scrap.

The company is referring to the facility as “India’s first plant for [the] washing and recycling of postconsumer multilayer plastic and PET bottle” scrap.

UFlex, which describes itself as a pioneer in multilayer plastic manufacturing and recycling, says it is scaling up its recycling strength to help build a circular economy. The company says the pilot plant in its Noida facility has been designed to accept collected postconsumer PET Bottles and multilayer plastic film and convert it into chips and granules. That output can in turn, be “put into further use to make products with economic value,” says UFlex.

UFlex says its PET bottle postconsumer recyclate (PCR) line will send bottles collected by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and waste collection agencies from the Delhi area through a process of shredding, washing and drying, before going to an extruder to form chips.

The company says clear PET bottles “will further be upcycled to manufacture a range of PCR grade BOPET film” from UFlex called Asclepius. The Asclepius film can be used for multiple applications like packaging and label material, says UFLex. The line has the capacity to recycle up to 600 metric tons of clear PET bottles per month.

The other UFlex line is called its postconsumer plastic recyclate (PCPR) for multilayered plastic (MLP) film. The PCPR line will wash and recycle postconsumer MLP scrap and convert it into granules via a process of shredding, washing and drying. The granules can be used to form more than 10,000 industrial and household products like flower pots, outdoor furniture, bucket, dust bins, paver tiles and road dividers, according to UFlex.

Collected postconsumer MLP scrap will be sourced from manufacturers, brand owners, NGOs and producer responsibility organizations in the Delhi area. The PCPR line has a capacity to wash and recycle up to 500 metric tons of MLP scrap per month.

The company says the project is in line with its global sustainability campaign called “Project Plastic Fix,” through which UFlex “will steer its efforts toward keeping plastic in the economy and out of the environment, converting waste into wealth.”

States Jeevaraj Pillai, president of packaging and new product development at UFlex, “The problem of discarded plastic is escalating and alarming. India alone generates 26,000 tons of plastic [scrap] every day. The need of the hour is to enable a system where plastic is collected, properly cleaned and then recycled. Our Noida plant is one such initiative [and] with recycling plants [like] this coming up at various locations, UFlex will have a capacity to recycle more than 3,000 metric tons of plastic [scrap per] month, and we aim to build the largest infrastructure for recycling plastic.”

Adds Dinesh Jain, president of legal and corporate affairs at UFlex, “We believe in co-existence of sustainability and business, and it is incumbent on us to take care of our environment with ethical and safe practices, such that the utility of our product persists without any harm to the environment.”