The growth potential for the biodegradable plastics are enormous as the current production is estimated to be 1.8million tons by 2025 versus the single use plastics usage is estimated to be around 144 miilion tons per annum. Considering the Indian scenario to replace the conventional single use plastics that are hazardous to environment, the industry always expects truly compostable plastics that can be composted in municipal waste handling facilities as India is not equipped with organized industrial composting facilities.
This limits and challenges businesses on the technologies they can implement to develop biodegradable solutions. "It is important to innovate and use the right products to meet the compostable needs specific to our country. The solution should be affordable to implement in really low cost segments like carry bags that we get in kirana shops or from street vendors which are the main cause of littering," says Purushotham Adoni, Director, Ecolastic.
Ecolastic is focussed in making biodegradable and compostable materials that can be converted into bags, films, articles, straws and so on depending on the customer needs. Ecolastic offers wide range of pellets for all these applications and encourages industry to set up conversion companies to expand our innovation into reality. Ecolastic conducted rigorous research, developed a starch based technology platform that can be implemented to wide range of product
lines commonly helping in making them compostable in typical Indian weather conditions in municipal composting facilities. Due to the high starch content in the finished products, the costs are significantly lower compared to equivalent products coming from larger global organizations. These products are developed in collaboration with DRDO which have undergone several testing at DRDO labs and backed by Indian regulatory certificates like IS/ISO17088 and CPCB.
"With this Ecolastic is fuelled to address large application segments mainly causing the environmental pollution through littering. We have already implemented the product at Tirumala Tirupati Devastanams which is one of large distributor of the biodegradable bags for Srivari Laddu Prasadam," he adds.
The company is completely research oriented with world class research facilities and also works in collaboration with India’s premier research institute, Defence Research and Development Organization DRDO, Govt. of India for the development and testing. It is also closely working with a dozen of large scale organizations who are using few thousands of Tons of plastics in their applications and have strong drive to replace them with environment friendly products. In addition its products are certified by CIPET for IS/ISO17088 and Central Pollution Control Board. The products can also be backed by any third party certification confirming the compliance for food packing which is a common practice in the industry.
The starch based fast degrading and economically viable biodegradable plastics are the most promising alternates to replace single use short life packaging films
The Ecolastic water resistance films are one of the most important products for meeting common packaging needs of the industry. This film meets the composting requirement as per Indian regulation IS/ISO 17088 and in addition this product is designed to meet home compostable conditions of some of the international certification bodies.
As the Govt. of India is implementing the ban of single use plastics in a phased manner the industry is gearing up for the change. Moreover, the consumer awareness has also skyrocketed in the recent times.
Ecolastic has a clear vision for expansion of the business to meet the industry demand. "We are working with a clear strategy on the product portfolio and systematic cost reduction by increasing the starch content in the products by continuous innovation on the formulations front," he concludes.
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