UFlex, India’s largest flexible packaging company, has become a member of Alliance to End Plastic Waste (Alliance), a global non-profit organization with a mission to eliminate plastic waste in the environment. UFlex has been steadfast in its commitment to tackle the problem of plastic waste, and the company has utilized its expertise to derive solutions and technologies that help recover and recycle post-consumer plastic waste and help plastic find a purpose beyond its original use.

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. The company's goal is to globalize these practices while implementing them across the globe. 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.

Founded in 2019, Alliance has convened a global network of corporations, project partners, and supporters across the plastics value chain. The Alliance undertakes joint initiatives with member organizations across the world to minimize and manage plastic waste in the environment. It adopts a quadrangular approach to take collective actions, which includes 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 mobilize action towards meaningful solutions; and cleanup up of areas by working with partners to address plastic waste at source.

Jacob Duer, president and CEO of the Alliance, states, “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.”

UFlex has been working on upholding the utility of plastic in the economy for over three decades. According to UFlex, it was the first company in the world to recycle mixed plastic waste for which it earned recognition at the Davos Recycling Forum in 1995. It has been recycling its own and partner companies’ industrial plastic waste since then.

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 enzyme based biodegradable solution that converts uncollected plastic waste into biomass.

On joining the Alliance, Ashok Chaturvedi, UFlex chairman and managing director, says, “Plastic waste crisis is one of the most pressing global concerns of today and as a socially conscious organization that has sustainability firmly entrenched at its very soul, we are aware that we need to find a solution collectively to enable co-existence of plastic and human race. The Alliance is the ideal forum for us to bolster our efforts and rewrite 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 and 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.”

UFlex is in the process of further investing close to $10 million toward various initiatives undertaken at its overseas and Indian plants to repurpose plastic waste. As a Board member of the Alliance, it remains committed toward investments to support the Alliance and defining its programs for reducing mismanaged plastic waste and help achieve the common agenda to keep plastic waste out of the environment.