Walked into a superstore (next to Kitab Khana) in Mumbai's Fort area. The USD 200 item was deposited into an eco-friendly paper bag which offered exceptional strength, durability, and premium aesthetic. I said to myself that this is the future of packaging with it being crafted entirely from recycled paper.

And so began my investigation into recycled paper. I realised it is virgin paper. After some more sleuthing, I realised many brands in most supermarkets make this claim with their paper bags. And 60% of customers who believe in "clean and green" and make decisions based on the environmental impact of the product and packaging are simply being misled.

Major and not-so-major brands are rolling out recycled paper bags to replace single-use plastic bags and the total number is in excess of 1,000. As a paper trader shared with PrintWeek, "There is a shift of approximately 1.5% annual growth from plastic packaging to paper packaging."

Today the kraft paper and paperboard consumption in India is nine-million tonnes. This is being fulfilled by an unprecedented rise in imports from countries, which are part of the ASEAN pact. And so, paper imports from Indonesia more than doubled (108.3%) during the April-October period of the ongoing financial year; likewise, imports from Thailand have grown by 73.4% during the same period.

The point is that the rapid rise in paper imports (almost 142% from ASEAN countries) is because they enjoy zero import duty on paper because of the free-trade agreement.

A paper bag converter who spoke to me off the record said, “It makes economic sense for a paper bag manufacturer to use virgin paper instead of recycled paper, simply because it is cheaper. Anything clean and green is much more expensive."

This is a well-known secret in the trade. A lie that's terrible for both recycling and the environment. But so it is.

Challenges

During the recent Respack conference, Ayaz Kagzi shared a Pidilite case study about collecting back the 15-litre and 50-litre drums from consumers and what were the ground-level challenges. He mentioned how the project was not a huge success even though the brand had incentivised the buyback and streamlined the collection system. He said the project was an eye-opener and these are the granular on-ground realities which need to be understood and addressed by lawmakers. For example, what is the current practice about reusing drums versus recyclability?

This sentiment is echoed by industry leaders that they welcome sustainable policy. However, the recycling metrics are not in sync with consumer behaviour.

Nitin Agarwal of Pashupati spoke about over-simplifying the problem of plastic recyclability. He mentioned how (and why) as a recycler there are innumerable challenges like multiple polymers in the same packaging material and over-engineering in terms of formulations. Agarwal shared insights about the waste collection system in a country like India; and how one needs smart waste collection and greater awareness about how to design responsible packaging.

At the crux of the matter is materials science and guaranteeing a significant investment into developing new, sustainable materials. After all, it takes one second to manufacture a plastic bag, but 1,000 years for it to decompose.

Recycling realities 

I visited a recycling operation in Vasai. I feel one of the most onerous jobs is sorting plastics. They are sorted by colour, such as clear (whites), green, blue, red, or green; and then by type, like PET, HDPE, PVC, PP, PS

If the sorting is improper, and the plastics are melted together, the producer ends up with shoddy-quality products.

Some of it can be resolved at the design stage. It is baffling to see international and Indian brands that deploy poor label design, wrong types of glues, and mixed materials.

During Jury Week at the PrintWeek Awards, jury members shared with us how the packaging R&D teams are creating a digital tool that includes the characteristics of different grades of recycled plastics. The tool predicts the resulting colour, doing away with the need to create prototypes.

But this is a tricky issue. After all, sorting and identifying plastic waste is not an easy matter. Plastics exist in so many forms that recycling them is complex. Each type of plastic needs a specific processing method, and when different plastics are mixed, it can affect the quality of the recycled material.

Today, businesses are developing alternative materials to problematic flexible plastics, especially for pouches and sachets. This means designing materials that are compatible with recycling systems and naturally biodegradable.

There are more than 3,000 materials and technologies, including techniques from other industries that are not currently used in packaging.

The fact is that our recycling plan (EPR thinks everything is PP) unravels on thorny externalities, and timid half-hearted rules and regulations don’t solve a broader problem. For instance, obsolete labelling systems and plastic resin codes. Today, “7 is the most abused label and placing a recycling triangle around it is gross abuse. Define the material instead.

The road ahead

As Dr Swaminathan Sivaram of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune said during his keynote presentation about sustainable packaging at the Respack conference, "By 2050, India will contribute 30-40% of the global plastics recycling market, out of which 85/90% will be polyolefins."

Sivaram said, “Recycling is antagonistic to circularity and the industry leaders must be very sensitive about how it deploys these terms. His cautionary message for the delegates was “The more you recycle your polyolefins, the more unfit it becomes for the circular economy.

He said, “Conflating re-use economy with circular economy is incorrect messaging.” He points out that material can’t be re-used all the time."

The questions are these: How does one make polyolefin packaging materials sustainable and circular? How do divisive definitions tarnish the sustainability drive? And finally, how are industry bodies struggling to agree on the terms recycled and reuse, which are creating confusion among consumers?

The point is, technologies are evolving but technologies are expensive. And investments in such technologies may not be supported by the slender margins in waste processing.

Ground realities
An industry colleague who has been tracking plastic waste recycling said to me that his investigation indicates the numbers simply do not add up. Many companies have certificates that they are recycling plastic, but this is impossible. We do not have plants that can recycle at that scale."

When asked to elaborate, he said, "Many things don't work on the ground. For example, the take-back schemes, lack of awareness about recycling bins, a handful of collection centres, and not enough investment in recycling infrastructure."

The CCPA guidelines warn against claims that are misleading consumers about its environmental impact, and that is a good development. The problem is, that the grounds to legally challenge the claims will be very difficult.

Today, "the greenwashing economy" is opaque and fragmented and there are too many vested interests. The 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) make for a familiar mantra, but there are sharp disagreements over which to prioritise.

For greenwashing to be check-mated, circularity must be economically sustainable. But how does one manage the balance sheet when the recycled resin is more expensive than virgin resin; and rPET is 20% more costly? Under such circumstances, circularity does not offer a value proposition to the consumer.