Woohoo Doodh’s gable top cartons approach enables sustainability

After collection of the cartons, the company ensures a proper disposal. It claims to be the first milk company in India to initiate recyclable paper-based packaging for milk since its inception in 2015.

The company has partnered with Parksons Packaging for the gable top container project. A gable top carton consists of three layers, first is a thick layer of recyclable virgin paper pulp board which forms 90% of the carton, then there are two thin layers of PE coating on either side of the paperboard which is the remaining 10% of the carton. The gable top cartons can be easily shredded in any paper mill and can be segregated as paper waste from households.

As per a recent market study, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad require around 13-lakh litres of milk daily. Most of the milk is primarily served in plastic pouches. Woohoo Doodh supplies to 1,500 households in Pune and PCMC and has contributed close to one-million litres of milk since its inception in 2015.

Rahul Uppal, founder of Woohoo Doodh said, “In India before Woohoo Doodh, milk cartons used were aseptic as they have 35% thick aluminium foil layer that is very difficult to separate and recycle. The gable top carton is the most common milk packaging across the globe and is commonly called as a refrigerated milk carton. Since the inception of Woohoo Doodh, we have maintained an eco-friendly packaging that contributes to our idea of happiness – because ‘(when) the earth is happy, we are happy’.”

Rahul Uppal, chief executive officer, Woohoo Doodh

When Uppal started this company, he aimed to design a business model that is sustainable all across the value chain which included having an environment-friendly packaging. To ensure the same, they imported a gable top machine from California and partnered with Mumbai-based Parksons Packaging. Woohoo Doodh is a brand of Happy Beverages and Foods, which was started with a vision to home deliver pure milk within 24 hours of milking with 0% preservatives, chemicals, antibiotics or hormones and an eco-friendly model.

Talking about the acceptance of gable-top cartons by the user industry, Ramesh Kejriwal, chairman of Parksons Packaging, said, “It is progressing well and thanks to the plastic ban we anticipate a boost in the adoption of this technology. Under the present circumstances, we will see liquid packaging such as milk, water, juice, cream, all dairy products, as well as value-added products move from plastic-based to gable top packaging, which is paper-based. So hopefully this year we would be selling more number of filling machines. Additional filling machines mean a multi-fold increase in carton requirement.”

Parksons has installed 10-12 filling machines till date.