PepsiCo India has said it has achieved the milestone of 100% PET collection and recycling in Maharashtra as part its Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programme. The State is the second after Delhi to achieve the 100% PET recycling target, the company said.
PepsiCo worked with GEM Enviro Management, a waste management company, in this effort.
It has put up 100 collection points in 36 districts of the State for the recycling of used PET bottles. The programme worked on strengthening the existing informal collection network involving more than 10,000 wastepickers and incentivising collection efforts, the company said.
To celebrate this milestone, PepsiCo India and GEM Enviro, in the presence of senior officials from the Nagpur Municipal Corporation, on Monday organised a ‘Nagpur Cleanathon’ at Ambazari lake garden to encourage all stakeholders to work towards management of plastic waste.
Speaking on the occasion, Nanda Jichkar, Mayor, Nagpur city, said, “From electric vehicles to recycling plants, the city of Nagpur is proactively working towards making it clean and green.” She urged students to spread the message of reducing, recycling and reinventing plastic wherever they go.
“As part of our Winning with Purpose vision, we are striving to help build a world where plastics need never become waste,” said Juhi Gupta, head sustainability, PepsiCo India. “As part of the same vision, we have been working across multiple States to collect, segregate and sustainably manage the equivalent of 100% of our plastic packaging by 2021,” she said.
