How Harsh Mariwala's Marico Innovation Foundation is fighting to end plastics

Everywhere you look, it’s there. Hanging from shopfronts, littering the sidewalks, strategically hidden around our houses, filling our dump yards, etc. Plastics have permeated our lives like hardly anything else in modern society.

While plastics are used by all of us, most do not understand how seriously the material disrupts our fragile environment. And while awareness has definitely increased over the years, very little has been achieved in terms of eliminating or reducing its usage. Further, looking at how extensively plastics are used, a solution to the problems of overuse, disposal and recycling has largely eluded us.

It is in search of answers to these questions like these that Harsh Mariwala, Chairman of fast-moving consumer goods company Marico, established a not-for-profit entity called Marico Innovation Foundation (MIF) in 2003 to explore the avenues where the group could support viable solutions.

“I realised the need to solve this challenge,” says Mariwala. “The team [at MIF] did a deep dive in areas such as land and water pollution. It was apparent that plastic was ripe for an intervention, since there were major innovations emerging in the space, with a clear need for an ecosystem to be built around it.”

Mariwala was of the view that most of the research that had been done focussed only on the problems around plastics, and not enough on viable solutions. “The ecosystem was looking for solutions across the value chain and that included recycling, sorting and collection. There was also a gap in knowledge on what one should focus on,” Mariwala explains. That led MIF to prepare a report, as “the first step to create a knowledge book on plastics that offers innovative solutions”.

To that end, the foundation partnered with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and management consulting firm Praxis Global Alliance as knowledge partners to prepare a report titled, “Innovation in Plastics: The Potential and Possibilities”. The report, along with highlighting the key aspects of the plastics value chain such as the dramatic rise in plastic consumption in India (from 13.7 million tonnes in 2016-17 to 19.8 MT in 2019-20) and how plastic is currently recycled in India, also offers concrete measures around how a circular economy in plastics can be created. Not surprisingly, the report finds it to be a complex issue with many dimensions that need to be addressed with urgency.

Explaining the salient points of the report, Mariwala says that governments across the world have provided incentives to create circularity in the plastics ecosystem through less taxes, more infrastructure investments or equity grants to start-ups. “Besides, governments have also levied penalties, such as landfill tax and enforced the use of recycled plastics to a certain extent, in consumer products. There is also private and VC funding available that has helped in bringing innovative solutions to the fore, with brands adopting these solutions to reduce the overall problem of plastics,” he says.

MIF’s research has found that some of the most important aspects required in reducing the impact of plastics on the environment are finding sustainable ways to achieve circularity, eliminating waste at the source, along with reusing and recycling plastic products and materials at scale, for which the foundation is working with over a dozen start-ups. But to achieve these goals, especially circularity, the report has found that funding has been insignificant, with just $6 million invested in CY21. Compare that to the close to $6 billion invested in edtech and another $5 billion invested in fintech or the over $1.2 billion in e-commerce and logistics, and the picture for the space becomes very gloomy. “MIF will work closely with the start-ups to identify the critical areas that prevent them from scaling up,” says Mariwala. Through the knowledge partners, the intention is to create a plan for each of their innovations to scale up. “They will then provide the necessary support in terms of connects, market access, mentorship and the opportunity to pitch to investors,” he points out.

Combat Mode

Tucked away in Goregaon, Mumbai, is Lucro Plastecycle that specialises in converting used plastics into final packaging products. “This is a tough business to be in and we have a model that is fully integrated,” says Pratibha Priya Dewett, Chief Sustainability Officer at the start-up that begins with collecting waste to sorting and cleaning it, to later recycling it into finished products. On her table are plastic bottles of Parachute coconut oil bound together in a stretch wrap (a stretchable plastic film wrapped around items). The wrap is made at the company’s factory in Gujarat’s Umargam, a three-hour drive from Mumbai. The start-up focusses on collecting low-value flexible waste to turn into shrink and stretch wraps. She demonstrates a plastic wrap that is used by The House of Anita Dongre, a fashion apparel brand. “It is 100 per cent recyclable and made from 60 per cent post-consumer recycled plastic material,” she says.

In October 2022, the Government of India introduced a law requiring anyone manufacturing or using plastic to introduce a recycled version in their packaging. “That was a huge tipping point for the industry,” says Dewett.

Dealing with waste in every sense is a “dirty business,” but it is a job that must be done. Take the case of Ahmedabad-based Ishitva Robotic Systems that makes AI/ML and IoT-based automation solutions to sort recyclable materials. “Technology is our competitive edge and we are the enabler to create an ecosystem. We are the tech providers and this is a very scalable model,” says Jitesh Dadlani, Founder and CTO of the start-up. He cites the Swachh Bharat Mission as a big catalyst for his business. “We saw the opportunity in the value chain and it became possible to build solutions based in Industry 4.0 tools. Today, effective sorting is still the weakest link in the process of creating a circular value chain,” he says.

In a nascent industry, there is no limit to innovation, and looking for viable alternatives is one such example. Neha Jain, Founder & CEO of Zero Circle—that uses seaweed to create bio-alternatives that can replace plastics—has gone for the “top-down” model to keep plastics out of the picture. After travelling frequently to coastal Maharashtra, she hit upon the idea of using seaweed (that has 90 per cent water), as the raw material for her bioplastics “because of its higher biomass, fast reproduction and cost-effectiveness.” Jain says she works with the manufacturers who make the final packaging that go out to the users. “There is plastic hidden even in food containers made of paper. Seaweed-based coatings are a viable alternative to the plastics used in them and are high-performing.” With her product nearing the end of research and development, she is preparing to go into production shortly and is optimistic about what lies ahead.

Of course, the process of moving to alternatives would be a challenge, says Mariwala. He thinks that since the alternatives are expensive compared to virgin plastic, the government should provide incentives for the production of alternatives and benefits such as less taxes or tax breaks over the short- to medium term. This will help the alternatives achieve scale, which will bring down their prices, further fuelling their adoption.

By any yardstick, this transition will take time, but it is one that is non-negotiable. For over 150 years, the world has used plastic and the moment for a complete relook at how plastics are used is upon us, says Mariwala. The circular economy is a good starting point. With start-ups innovating new products and processes in the space, there is a way to create a robust and profitable business model. However, it needs substantial assistance from the government and other stakeholders at every stage. For the sake of a better environment and to ensure the generations that follow us live well, the plastic story needs to be addressed—smartly and quickly. 

@krishnagopalan