Our community waste management initiative

As part of our sustainability goals, we are taking measures to reduce, reuse and recycle waste in our manufacturing plants. With solid waste management emerging as a serious challenge, we have further extended our commitment to community projects.

In 2016, we have initiated several community waste management projects across India working with colleges and local municipalities.

Working with youth: Participation from youth is a critical element of managing the solid waste management problem. We have therefore partnered with an NGO to build awareness amongst the students and faculty of 25 colleges in Mumbai. With the college administration, we are reaching out to over 1500 young students and raising awareness among them to manage waste responsibly by involving them in the process. The project further includes building composting pits to help convert organic waste into compost and recycle the dry waste. This initiative is helping us divert close to 200 tonnes of waste per annum from landfills.

Working with communities: Municipal solid waste has becoming a growing concern in cities across India. Improper waste management is hazardous to local inhabitants and various studies have revealed that close to 90% of municipal solid waste is disposed unscientifically in open dumps and landfills. In order to tackle this, we have initiated two projects :

• We are partnering with the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC)to promote better methods of solid waste management at Hyderabad. We have funded 10 Swachh centres for better dry waste management and will also co-fund waste processing plants for wet and dry waste generated from Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs). Together, we are also creating awareness and building capacity of RWAs on waste segregation and management. With this, we aim to process close to 8000 tonnes of municipal waste per annum and reach out to over 1 million people. The ultimate aim of the project is to send zero waste to landfill
• At Guwahati, we have supported a social enterprise in the setup of a pyrolysis plant and are looking to convert plastic waste into fuel.The technology processes the plastic in an environment friendly way which otherwise would end up in landfills. With this installation, we aim to process nearly 2000 tonnes of plastic waste per annum from the communities near the plant.