Mother Dairy's "Plastic Waste Neutral" Plan

Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt Ltd said on Thursday it has set a target to recycle over 7,000 million tonnes (MT) of post-consumer used plastic waste in the current fiscal and would become 'plastic waste neutral' company by the financial year 2023-24.

Becoming plastic waste neutral means that the company will collect, recycle/co-process the same amount of plastic waste which is used in its product packaging in a year.

Mother Dairy began its plastic waste collection and recycling/co-processing initiative in Maharashtra in FY2018-19 under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programme and scaled up the initiative on a pan-India level for Multi-Layered Plastic Waste (MLP) in FY2019-20, in line with the Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rules 2018 as amended.

The Company has been closely working with its suppliers and leading Waste Management Agencies (WMA) for the implementation of the National EPR framework, Mother Dairy said in a statement.

The Company, through its associated partners, has collected and co-processed/recycled around 8,164 MT of post-consumer used plastic waste (5,318 MT of Single Layered Plastic Waste and 2,846 MT of Multi-Layered Plastic Waste) from June 2018 till March 2022.

"As a responsible organisation, we reaffirm our stand to a safer and cleaner environment for a better tomorrow. Testament to the fact is our Token Milk (branded loose milk) offering since 1984, which has been helping us to save approx 7 lakh kg of plastic coming into the environment every year," said Manish Bandlish, Managing Director, Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt Ltd.

"In line with our commitment, we have now set our sight towards being a plastic waste neutral organisation by FY2023-24, while contributing towards making our planet safe for the generations to come," he said.

The Company is also working towards reducing the consumption of plastic by way of offering alternatives to plastic straws used for the consumption of dairy beverages and will soon be available with paper-based straws across its markets of operations, Mother Dairy noted in the statement.

Bandlish further added, "Apart from plastics, we are also conscious of efficient usage of key natural resources by bringing them under our performance indicators. Over the years, Mother Dairy has taken varied measures for environment sustainability and conservation of natural resources through initiatives like water conservation, rainwater harvesting, and adoption of renewable energy sources."