Banning Bottles below 1 Ltr : Is this a correct step towards restricting pollution ?

Recently , The Mokokchung district administration, Nagaland exercised a complete ban on Packaged Drinking Water Bottles below 1 ltr. Many states have experimented this in past or even in present. 

What may be the general strategy ?

The admin must have implemented this to reduce the number of bottles with smaller denomination, indirectly reducing the total plastic. Looks right, at the face of it. Let's verify, whether it really serves the purpose.

• It acts as a breakdown measure, something done to temporarily address the situation, not attacking the cause.
• The cause is the habit of littering. Is something done to educate people on this aspect parallelly ?
• There should be a drive to promote reverse vending machine usage at public places. This educates & rewards people more.
• For recycling, some special "Feel Good" drive should be implemented by the govt. This will encourage citizens to recycle the plastic PET bottles. 
• As it is, almost 90 per cent of PET is recycled. There is no much point to include smaller bottles in the ban. This decreases the convenience of travelers and increases the usage of bigger sized bottles which provokes wastage of water ultimately.

In general, the policy looks good, however, the recycling should be more emphasized in parallel.

Plastic Waste from houses : Can you create a Business from this ?

The Situation ..

People sincerely wish to process whatever plastic they have, in an environment friendly way, however, not finding an easy clue to do it easily. And this is an opportunity if you can see as an entrepreneur.

Plastic Processing method at present

In India, the house hold waste is collected from houses by the municipal employees. We are instructed to separate the DRY vs WET. That's all. After this, the municipality separates the same at centres. Here, the Bio degradable & non bio degradable is sorted out. In the non bio degradable category, comes the plastic. In plastic too, there are several types by which they are separated, just have a look at these :-

From the municipal waste, appx 12% is Plastic waste. Out of this plastic waste , around 64% waste is generated from thin carry bags (thus it's the top priority). 9% from PET bottles & 23% from the remaining types. From the 9% again, they say (like Bisleri) that around 90% is already recycled (See what measures Bisleri takes to recycle the PET) 

How the Waste gets processed ...

The PET Bottles : For creating yarn from it & apparels, clothes ultimately. See this blogpost

All Plastics : Road Construction, Incineration at Cement Kilns, Waste to Fuel, Granules creation can be the other ways. Creative ways like Making Paver Blocks have also emerged. You can see the Plastic Waste Management rules for details on this, setup by the Govt. 

Note : Industries have a different procedure for this. However the procession remains the same.

Let's talk about the opportunity

Sorting & Processing Service : You can establish a local service with a Reverse Vending Machine (On wheels), separate & collect waste from societies, and supply to various places mentioned above & earn good revenue. 

Do you have any other idea ? please post in comments please !

Bisleri is already in this business....

Extended Producer's Responsibility 

If you're thinking about bottled water business, you're probably getting me wrong. The whole world knows that. I'm talking about something else: The EPR. the extended producers responsibility thing. In very simpler terms it's gonna be the waste producer's responsibility to manage the product till the end of its life, in order to protect the environment from is bad effects, particularly for plastic products if they're used in any of its packaging.

Bisleri is already into this from 4-5 years....

Bisleri, since it's the largest producer in the country has already been doing this. It seems to be conducting awareness campaigns, recycling drives and many things in this space. They have introduced special website called BOTTLES FOR CHANGE; through which is already started collecting plastic waste and effective management of the waste generated by them.

Recycling PET is the next big thing, sure !

Invest in Recycling !

If you are looking for a good business opportunity, invest in Recycling! Recently I have read 2 good news, 1 from Saudi & today from Egypt. In the Saudi News, Aquafina was not just official "Hydration" (bottled water) partner, but also was very keen in keeping the PET waste collection bins at various locations. We had covered this in another Blogpost.

Now it was time for Egypt

Thanks to Scoopempire.com

in Cairo, at the Elgouna Film Festival, Aquafina again made its mark by sponsoring a special dress fashioned for actress Dorra, made out of 300 Aquafina Bottles. 

Aquafina collaborated with an upcycling firm from Egypt, Up-Fuse, A designer Studio - Kojack Studio & an advertising Agency- Rabbit Experience.

Aquafina has specially carved out this program for the film festival benefit called "Designing Out Waste". Clearly, Pepsico is not only showing its keen interest to collect & recycle its waste, but also very keen to get the word out to brand themselves.

Where is Bisleri ?

In India, are there any initiatives like this ? I am keen to see something from the giants : Bisleri. Besides advertising their own products with camels (though very creative), I have not seen much initiatives by them.

#update March 2020 : Bisleri is already into it : Producing uniforms from the collected, crushed, recycled bottles

Ref this news :- https://www.indiantelevision.com/mam/marketing/mam/bisleri-makes-staff-uniforms-out-of-1000000-used-bottles-200305

There is definitely a lot of scope !

However, from a small producer's angle, there is a lot of scope for doing this. Just be creative & start a recycling campaign !

Branding with Waste Collection bins ..

Can this be a brand new Marketing idea for you ?

[Listen to the Podcast]

As we all know, the plastic is a big, huge challenge to the environment, and the Bottled Water industry, though not the 1st culprit, is the automatic target of everyone. As a Water Plant owner, we still need to make our sell. Hence need to make alterations/additions to our marketing strategies, branding, etc.

Look what Aquafina is doing in Saudi

Aquafina, the global water giant, has installed recycling bins during a huge tournament in Saudi very recently. They are just PET collection bins. This way, they not only support the cause, but also brand themselves well. In addition, they also made this news.

Can you implement this simple but effective strategy, starting at least from your locale ?

Please share your experience.

PET Bottle Collection & Sorting Business can be an excellent Business in India !

There is a sudden deep focus on PET Bottles now 

After 15th Aug & 2nd Oct 2019 , things have changed dramatically !

(Listen to Podcast)

On 15 th August, in his Prime Ministerial Speech, Mr Narendra Modi, declared that the Single Use Plastic will be out from Circulation, and it will happen in a phased manner in upcoming 3 years. Meaning, from 2022, there won't be any Single Time Use Plastic in production in India.On 2nd October, the Gandhi Jayanti day, the "Ban" was supposed to be in effect. 

Still, no official News

However, from 2nd October, till date, there is no official news about any "Ban" of any kind. A small relief to the already badly hit Bottled Water Industry in India. And for the PET Bottle Machinery, the Preform People, the Mineral Water Turnkey Suppliers and many whose entire business models contain PET in some way or the other. But don't assume that it's over. Modiji is a dirty fellow, and he DOES what he says. He does enjoy such a reputation. And everyone knows that. Be it Mr Chouhan of Bisleri or Mukesh Ambani of Reliance (whose major business rotates around this), they are very sure Modiji will do it one day. And believe me, the 1 Time Plastic is a killer thing, and should end.

The question is ...

For New Entrants, is this a Threat or an Opportunity ? I have already discussed this on my other post (this blog was not in place then). Considering it as an opportunity, here is where the immediate business opportunity lies : PET Bottles Recycling

From the Phrase itself, it's very clear that the empty, thrown away bottles are collected & re-used in 2nds Plastic Production. (This is the savior for PET Bottle industry). There are machines to do that etc. I am not much talking on that. The real challenge lies in bringing the collection, sorting business in the "Organized" sector. For example, let's have look at a Question asked on Quora meaning ..

"Is there any way a normal average citizen can give PET bottles for recycling in India ?"

This generated 3 answers. All of those except the 3rd one gave some other clues than giving it to the Kabadiwala. There are some startups in this space, but they are general.

I dug further, but could not find an easy place where you just order a vendor (like your swiggy) and your bottles are picked up (At a cost may be). 

Little elaboration could be ...

• Set up a Startup in the PET Bottle Recycling Niche
• Establish a Bottle Crushing Centre 
• Can install Reverse Vending Machines at various public spots, restaurants etc.
• List Kabadiwalas in Locality
• Create an App, Start Promotion
• Start Collecting PET Bottles, Crush them at the centre by separating
• Sell back for recycling (this model is established)

==> Can't it be a marvellous Business Idea ? Please share through Comments please !

# We also run a Podcast , this Idea is more elaborated on the Podcast.