UFlex has become a member of Alliance to End Plastic Waste (Alliance), a global non-profit organisation with a mission to eliminate plastic waste in the environment. Through this affiliation, UFlex aims to contribute to and guide the Alliance and its members about sustainability practices that it has been following for years to mitigate plastic waste issues, thus globalising these practises as also to learn and implement universally accepted practices. With support from the Alliance, UFlex also intends to promote and drive sustainable actions within the regions where it is present as a packaging company.
On joining the Alliance, UFlex chairman & managing director Ashok Chaturvedi said: “The Alliance is the ideal forum for us to bolster our efforts and re-write the overall story of how plastic waste can be repurposed for good. At UFlex, we strongly believe that the path to a plastic waste-free environment is possible with a combination of recycling (mechanical & chemical) and biodegradability. Through our association with the Alliance, we look forward to sharing our knowledge with like-minded global leaders while learning from their approaches to build a circular economy forever.”
Jacob Duer, president and chief executive officer of the Alliance, said: “As the issue of plastic waste moves up in the global sustainability agenda, our mission to develop, deploy and scale solutions to end plastic waste in the environment is more relevant than ever before. Strengthening participation across the plastics value chain with UFlex will help accelerate our collective efforts. Together, we can work towards helping to create a more sustainable future and I look forward to a fruitful partnership.”
The Alliance undertakes joint initiatives with member organizations across the world to minimize and manage plastic waste in the environment. Towards this, it adopts a quadrangular approach to take collective actions, which include the development of infrastructure for collection and management of plastic waste, innovation and creation of new technologies to advance a circular economy for plastic waste, education and engagement with various stakeholders to mobilise action towards meaningful solutions and clean-up of areas by working with partners to address plastic waste at source.
Under its global sustainability initiative ‘Project Plastic Fix’, in early 2020 UFlex extended its efforts to include post-consumer plastic waste by setting up lines, at its plant in headquarter city Noida, to recycle as well as upcycle post-consumer MLP mixed plastic waste and PET bottle waste into PCR grade packaging films (PCR PET & PCR PE) and injections moulding equipment. UFlex is scaling up its recycling infrastructure with the commissioning of similar facilities in Mexico and Poland to repurpose plastic waste coming from households locally. Moreover, it is developing an enzyme-based biodegradable solution that converts uncollected plastic waste into biomass.