Cargill Reduces Carbon Footprint In India Through Sustainable Packaging

Cargill’s oils business in India has redesigned its packaging by cutting down on the amount of raw plastic used across all products. In association with Dow Chemical, the business reformulated its plastic material, making 90% of its plastic packaging recyclable. The business is committed to promoting a sustainable environment by reducing raw plastic usage in its popular edible oil brands Gemini™, Sweekar®, and NatureFresh. To raise further awareness among consumers, the brands carry the slogan "recycle the present, save the future" on their packaging.

Converting 90% of its plastic packaging to recyclable packaging across its oils business is just one step to address plastic waste management. The business has also reduced the use of plastic by removing the paper label and converting it to in-mold labelling and converting paper used in the corrugated boxes to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. These efforts resulted in a reduction of 225 Metric Tons (MT) of plastic annually and has successfully reduced CO2 emission to 445MT.

To improve the recovery of recyclable plastics, Cargill’s oils business in India is working with the Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA), India's First PRO regd. with Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), to strengthen the collection and processing of used packages from consumers. IPCA helps the business in gathering post-consumer multi-layered plastic (MLP) and non-MLP waste as part of the Extended Producer Responsibility initiative. IPCA has installed various dry waste collection centers at important locations to segregate and compact plastic waste before distributing it to co-processing industries and plants. The business has increased its collection target to 70% while adding more locations across India.

Piyush Patnaik, Managing Director, Cargill’s oils business in India said, “As a responsible business, we started this initiative with the goal of rethinking plastic packaging without compromising on packaging quality. Our efforts in the future will be strengthened as we are working to further our efforts to reduce, recycle and recover plastic packaging. We are constantly harmonizing our objectives with government initiatives to impact change in a sustainable manner.”