Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable Private Limited (MDFVPL), country’s frontlines milk and milk products major, reasserts its pledge towards a cleaner environment; and announced that it has gathered and recycled/co-processed 7,284 MT of post-consumer used plastic waste in the nation till March 2021. The absolute volume includes both Multi-Layered Plastic (MLP) and Single Layered Plastic (SLP) waste.
MDFVPL initiated its plastic waste collection and recycling/co-processing initiative in Maharashtra in FY2018-19 under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programme and up-scaled the drive on pan-nation level for MLP in FY2019-20. The company has been closely working with leading Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs) for implementation of the programme.
Talking about the initiative, Manish Bandlish, managing director of Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable Private Limited informed- “MDFVPL is a responsible organisation and we feel it’s our duty to contribute towards a cleaner environment as well as to create awareness. We are the first company amongst the Indian dairy co-operatives to acquire registration under Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) as well as implementing EPR. Our efforts have always been aligned towards a holistic approach of collecting and recycling/co-processing of post-consumer used SLP and MLP waste. The Company stands committed to prolong these efforts and strengthen the momentum going ahead.”
Other initiatives by the company include:-
-Mother Dairy has been engaging and inspiring its consumers to go for Token Milk (Automated Milk Vending system) at the company’s booths in Delhi NCR and this endeavour has cut down the generation of about 700 MT plastic waste per year.
-MDFVPL has started a research programme on eco-friendly packaging and has launched paper trays for curd cups as a replacement of plastic trays which will reduce usage of approx. 100 MT of plastic.
-The company has substituted all plastic spoons with wooden spoons and discarded plastic straws provided along with a few dairy products.
-Increased consumption for 1 litre milk packs rather than 500 ml has assisted the Company to eliminate use of plastic bag/pouch by approx. 240 MT yearly.
Single Layered Plastic (SLP) such as milk pouches, curd, yoghurt, ice-cream cups, lassi and chaach bottles are being gathered, segregated and recycled in Delhi NCR and Maharashtra. The Company has adopted 100% EPR for MLP, such as laminates and Tetra Packs across 26 states of the nation where the company is operating, including Delhi NCR and Maharashtra.