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<ul><li>Last week, <keyword id="178761" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hindustan-Unilever-Limited">Hindustan Unilever Limited</keyword> (HUL) launched its first in-store vending machine model, <keyword id="11605454" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="smart-fill-machine">Smart Fill machine</keyword>, for its Home Care products with the aim to reuse, reduce and recycle plastic.</li><li>We talk to Prabha Narsimhan – Executive Director (Home Care) for Hindustan Unilever and Vice President (Home Care) for Unilever South Asia about the company's latest sustainable projects, how HUL has been focusing on becoming a sustainable company at a larger level, and future goals.</li></ul>Earlier this year, Hindustan Unilever Limited had announced that it would collect and process more plastic packaging waste than what it uses in a bid to achieve 100% plastic waste collection by the end of 2021. HUL has taken one more step forward towards sustainability and achieving this plastic waste neutrality goal. The FMCG giant has launched an in-store vending machine model, Smart Fill machine, for its Home Care products. It allows consumers to reuse and recycle plastic. <br /><br />According to Terrin.org, around <a href="https://www.teriin.org/sites/default/files/files/factsheet.pdf">43%</a> of manufactured plastic in India is used for packaging purposes, and is mostly single-use plastic. India produces an estimated 62 million tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, which is likely to reach 165 million tonnes by 2030. With this growing concern around plastic pollution generated by companies, more and more brands are realising the importance of becoming sustainable and relooking at their packaging strategy. The ban on single-use plastic has also further pushed manufacturers to look at green alternatives. <br /><br />So, to do its bit for the environment and undo some of the damage caused by plastic, HUL’s Smart Fill machine will allow its consumers to reuse their plastic bottles by refilling products from its brands like Surf Excel, Comfort and Vim, to begin with. <br /><div type="Youtube" id="Bkjlj6S5c5E" title="HUL‘s ‘Smart Fill’ machine empowers consumers to reduce plastic waste" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Bkjlj6S5c5E/mqdefault.jpg"></div><br />The vending machine has been installed at Reliance Smart Acme Mall in Mumbai and the project is currently in pilot stage. <br /><br />Sharing how HUL is slashing its product prices to nudge consumers to switch, Prabha Narsimhan – Executive Director (Home Care) for Hindustan Unilever and Vice President (Home Care) for Unilever South Asia said, “As an incentive, consumers are being offered Rs 30 off on the MRP or effective price at the store if they get their own bottle and Rs 15 off to those who purchase the Smart Fill bottle. The flagship brands that consumers can avail these benefits on include Surf Excel liquid for Top Load and Front Load washing machines; Comfort Fabric Conditioner and Vim Dishwash Liquid Gel.” <br /><br />The COVID-19 pandemic has added a safety dimension to sustainability that consumers and organisations must now balance. However, for HUL, the timing couldn’t be more perfect to launch this pilot.<br /><br />Sharing why, Narsimhan said, “COVID-19 in general has been difficult for businesses and brands across sectors. After most COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, we have continued our on-ground efforts with health guidelines in place, for elimination of plastic litter. All our plastic waste collection partners mobilized their resources to minimize disruption without risking the health of their staff members and partners. In fact, COVID has improved our focus on responsible disposal of waste, which is why we feel it is a good time to start this pilot.”<br /><br />After gauging the response at Reliance Smart, the project will be implemented across the country. <br /><br />Narsimhan said, “We believe that upstream interventions such as shifting from single use towards re-use and refill models can be one of the most impactful solutions to plastic waste from an environmental, economic, and social perspective. This project will serve as an ideal pilot to gather learnings and use them to replicate it across the state and the country. Given that this is our first initiative, we have partnered with Reliance. In fact, we had partnered with Reliance Smart across 3 cities, in 2019 to carry out an awareness drive amongst customers on the importance of segregation of waste at the household level for effective waste management. Continuing with our shared vision to manage plastic waste, we have collaborated with Reliance Smart for this pilot project as well. We are hopeful that through our awareness building exercises, we will be able to ensure mass behavioral change in the consumers regarding the role that they can play in curbing this menace. We aim to use learnings from this pilot project in Mumbai to create a scalable refill business model in partnership with prominent retailers and modern trade outlets.”<br /><br />To further promote the cause and get more consumers to visit the mart, HUL has partnered with influencers in the vicinity. <br /><br />Narsimhan shared the marketing plan with us. She said, “One of the key aspects to draw visibility to the vending machine is in-store branding. Our effort would be to make sure that as more and more consumers visit and experience this model, they will be able to help us spread the awareness through word-of-mouth, which we plan to amplify further. We have also tied-up with a few influencers in the catchment areas around the store that will help us create surround sound around the Smart Fill. As the initiative scales up further, we will look at a more broad-based digital campaign that will help us further spread the message across consumers.” <br /><br />Millennials and GenZ today are much more conscious of the brands they choose. Their choice usually depends on how much of an effort a brand is making towards helping the environment and society at large. While Narsimhan agreed that young people are more likely to be the first adopters of refilling, HUL is trying to target all age groups. <br /><br />She said, “Millennials and Gen Zs are by far one of the most conscious consumers we have witnessed in the last two decades. Born in a digital age, this generation is socially aware, more health-conscious and understands the impact of their actions on the environment. All our sustainable interventions are designed to not just cater to their sensibilities, but towards the larger goal of driving real, on-ground impact that is accessible. As for the ‘Smart Fill’ project, we are catering to consumers across demographics including Millennials and Gen Zs. Since Reliance Smart is a retail outlet that garners footfalls across age groups; we intend to bolster awareness and empower our consumers to make smarter decisions when it comes to the issue of plastic waste generation.” <br /><br />But this isn’t the only sustainable effort that the FMCG giant has taken in this year.<br /><br />Walking us through the past action-filled 6 months, Narsimhan shared, “We have substituted commodity polymers with performance-based polymers, optimized the packaging designs and changed the packaging formats of our products to consume less plastic. For example: Pond’s Talc was recognized at the 24th DuPont Global Packaging Award for reducing packaging through innovation. We have developed coating technology to replace the polymer coating in our soap cartons. Our soap bar range cartons in skin cleansing are plastics free. We have started migrating to recyclable flexibles across our portfolio starting with pilots in few brands like soap wrapper of Lux and Lifebuoy, Sunsilk shampoo sachets and Pond’s tubes. We have also started using rPET (80% recycled PET) in our blister packs for personal care brands such as Pepsodent toothbrush, Vaseline lip care. We have launched Vim liquid bottles having 50% rPET. We have initiated use of rHDPE (25% recycled HDPE) in our personal care bottles like Tresemme, Sunsilk, Surf Excel Laundry liquid and Comfort fabric conditioner.” <br /><br />Brands play a huge role in bringing about change in society and Narsimhan said that brands should use that to empower consumers to make better choices. <br /><br />She said, “Consumers relate to brands that resonate with their own way of thinking. Brands that don’t just advocate such ideas but put them into measurable, result-oriented action. Therefore, brands can and must play their part in empowering consumers to make sustainable choices. And one of the key aspects of this empowerment journey is by offering choices that are accessible and hassle-free. With our plastic waste collection initiative and now the refill machine, we are encouraging and empowering our consumers to be a part of this solution. These small changes that consumers make on a day-to-day basis can lead to a sizable impact overall.”<br /><br />When it comes to sustainability, we often hear the three popular R’s – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle in every marketing campaign. Many companies have promoted only recycle and reuse. However, reduce hits at consumption. As a result, HUL has also formulated long-term goals to focus on reduction of plastic. It has committed that by 2025 100% of the company’s plastic packaging is reusable, recyclable, or compostable and halving use of virgin plastic by reducing the absolute use of plastic packaging and accelerating use of recycled plastic.<br /><br />Shedding some light on HUL’s larger sustainability efforts and vision, Narsimhan said, “We are committed to accelerating a transition to a circular economy, moving from the linear take-make-dispose model to a regenerative approach, which keeps materials at their highest value for as long as possible. We recently announced that from 2021 onwards, we will collect and facilitate environment-friendly processing of more plastic packaging waste than the plastic we use in our packaging. Since 2018, we have facilitated safe disposal of more than 1.5 lakh tons of post-consumer use plastic waste with the help of collection and disposal partners across India. We are also working closely with the government and other partners such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Xynteo for end-to-end pilot projects for plastic waste management. Apart from this, the Education Department of Maharashtra, HUL and Xynteo have rolled out a digital school curriculum focused on the importance of segregation, collection and safe disposal of waste. The programme reached nearly one lakh children in Maharashtra during its pilot last year and is currently being scaled across the state.”<br />

Hindustan Unilever Limited’s Prabha Narsimhan shares latest steps that the company has taken towards sustainability to achieve its goal of 100% plastic waste collection by the end of 2021

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Shutterstock</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Goldman Sachs is joining other big US companies like Starbucks to ban plastic straws from its US offices.</strong></li><li><strong>The change comes as states like California have signed bills aimed at reducing straw waste. </strong></li><li><p><strong> Straw bans are just one small way to get people thinking about how to reduce their plastic use, say environmentalists.</strong></p></li></ul><p>Goldman Sachs bankers looking for a straw for their Diet Coke may have to look outside their office walls. </p><p>The investment bank joined Starbucks and American Airlines in doing away with plastic straws in the US, according to a memo sent to employees on Wednesday. Paper cups and plastic lids will also be removed from the firm's pantries, with employees encouraged to use their own mugs. </p><p>The policy will go into effect on Oct. 29 at the firm's New York, Jersey City, Dallas, Richardson and Salt Lake City offices, with the rest of the Americas offices enacting the change by the end of the year. The bank has already outlawed the waste in the Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. </p><p style="font-weight: 400;">Goldman already committed to eliminating all business waste from landfills by 2020, according to the memo, which was sent by<span> Dino Fusco and Kyung-Ah Park, the bank's global head of corporate services and real estate.</span></p><p style="font-weight: 400;">In September, California Governor Jerry Brown<span> </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/california-straw-ban-restaurants-what-you-need-to-know-2018-9">signed into law a first-of-its-kind bill</a><span> </span>aimed at reducing straw waste in the state. Starting in 2019, sit-down restaurants in the state won't serve any drinks with straws, unless customers ask for them. Starbucks has vowed to get its iconic green sippers completely off store shelves by 2020, while Seattle banned all plastic utensils, including straws, from bars and businesses city-wide in July.</p><p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/plastic-straw-ban-why-are-there-so-many-2018-7">Environmentalists say</a><span> </span>straw bans are just one small way to get people thinking about how to reduce their plastic use.</p><p>In 2015, plastic consumption worldwide totaled <a href="https://blog.euromonitor.com/2018/04/ethical-living-megatrend-briefing-plastic-lose-re-use.html">300 million metric</a> tonnes. That essentially means that for each one of the world's 7.6 billion humans, we're making 88 pounds of plastic a year.</p><h2>See also: </h2><ul><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-big-changes-in-equities-trading-leadership-shows-how-important-technology-is-to-trading-clients-2018-6">Goldman Sachs has created a new team to take on high-speed traders like Virtu and Citadel Securities at their own game</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/david-solomon-goldman-sachs-inner-circle-management-team-dozen-2018-7">Goldman Sachs just named its next CEO - here are the execs who will be in and out, according to a dozen insiders</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-poached-an-equity-derivatives-trader-from-barclays-2018-7">Goldman Sachs has poached an up-and-coming equities trader from Barclays - bolstering a lagging business for the Wall Street giant</a></li></ul><p class="tagline">Get the latest Goldman Sachs stock price<a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/GS-Quote"> here.</a></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-smart-contracts-can-work-2018-10">How smart contracts will work</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Goldman Sachs is banning plastic straws - and it's part of the firm's grand scheme to cut down on waste

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Chris McGrath/Getty</span></p><p class="caption">A mound of plastic bottles in Istanbul, Turkey.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Scientists have created a mutant enzyme that can digest common plastics.</strong></li><li><strong>Researchers were looking at an existing enzyme found naturally in landfills.</strong></li><li><strong>In the process they inadvertently created a new, more effective version.</strong></li><li><strong>The new enzyme can fully eat up PET, the plastic used in bottled water and soft drinks.</strong></li><li><strong>It could drastically reduce the time needed for plastic to fully decompose.</strong></li></ul><p><br />Scientists have accidentally discovered a mutant enzyme that can fully eat up and decompose common plastic, and could help the world solve the problem of plastic waste.</p><p>Researchers in the US and UK examined an existing enzyme which had occurred naturally in landfill sites and was able to slowly digest man-made plastics.</p><p>But in the course of testing the enzyme's origins, the researchers made biological changes to it that turbo-charged its ability to digest plastics, according to <a href="http://uopnews.port.ac.uk/2018/04/16/engineering-a-plastic-eating-enzyme/">Britain's University of Portsmouth</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/16/scientists-accidentally-create-mutant-enzyme-that-eats-plastic-bottles">According to The Guardian</a>, the enzyme starts breaking down plastic in a matter of days, a process which would take centuries under normal conditions.</p><p>The enzyme is called PETase, because it eats <a href="http://www.bpf.co.uk/Sustainability/pet_plastic_bottles_facts_not_myths.aspx">polyethylene terephthalate</a> (PET), the lightweight plastic used in bottled water and soft drinks.</p><p>Professor John McGeehan, one of the scientists leading the study, said:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Serendipity often plays a significant role in fundamental scientific research and our discovery here is no exception.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">"Although the improvement is modest, this unanticipated discovery suggests that there is room to further improve these enzymes, moving us closer to a recycling solution for the ever-growing mountain of discarded plastics."</p><p>The mutant enzyme is still in its early stages, and the scientists are now working on developing it for use on an industrial scale.</p><p>Right now, plastic bottles that are recycled can only be turned into opaque fibres, which can then be used to make clothes or carpets. A more effective method would enable recycled plastic to be put to a far wider variety of uses.</p><p>About 8.3 billion tonnes (9.1 billion tons/8,300 billion kg) of plastic has been produced since production began about 70 years ago. Around 6.3 billion tonnes (6.9 billion tons/6,300 billion kg) is waste, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42264788">the BBC reported</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/earth-north-south-poles-flip-magnetic-field-2018-4">What will happen when Earth's north and south poles flip</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Scientists accidentally discovered a mutant enzyme that could help the world eliminate plastic waste

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP/Rogelio V. Solis</span></p><p class="caption">Kroger is ditching plastic bags.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/kroger">Kroger</a> is ditching plastic bags. It announced on Thursday that it plans to phase out single-use plastic bags at all locations by 2025. </strong></li><li><strong>The change applies to all of Kroger's grocery brands, including Ralphs, Harris Teeter, and QFC, which will be the first chain to stop using single-use plastic bags. </strong></li><li><strong>Kroger's plans to transition away from plastic bags comes at a time when retailers' use of single-use plastic is under scrutiny. </strong></li></ul><p> </p><p><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/kr-stock">Kroger</a> is ditching plastic bags at check-out. </p><p>On Thursday, the grocery chain announced plans to phase out single-use plastic bags by 2025.</p><p>The change applies to all grocers under the Kroger umbrella, including Ralphs, Harris Teeter, and Dillons. QFC, a Kroger-owned chain based in the Pacific Northwest, will be the first brand to eliminate plastic bags, with the company saying that the transition will be completed at the chain in 2019. </p><p>"We listen very closely to our customers and our communities, and we agree with their growing concerns," Mike Donnelly, Kroger's executive vice president and COO, said in a statement about the move. "<span>That's why, starting today at QFC, we will begin the transition to more sustainable options." </span></p><p>Kroger plans to transition away from plastic bags and towards reusable bags as part of a larger plan to reduce waste at the company. According to a press release from the grocer, roughly 100 billion single-use plastic bags are thrown away in the United States every year, with less than 5% of the bags being recycled. </p><p>The announcement comes at a time when retailers are under pressure to move away from using plastic whenever possible. In July, Starbucks announced plans to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-replaces-straws-with-sippy-cup-lid-2018-7">eliminate single-use plastic straws by 2020,</a> following a number of cities who are banning the use of plastic straws. </p><p>"In 2015, plastic consumption worldwide totaled 300 million metric tonnes," Business Insider's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/plastic-straw-ban-why-are-there-so-many-2018-7">Hilary Brueck</a><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/plastic-straw-ban-why-are-there-so-many-2018-7"> reported in July.</a> "That essentially means that for each one of the world's 7.6 billion humans, we're making 88 pounds of plastic a year. The packaging industry is still growing, according to Euromonitor, with flexible plastics leading the pack." </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/panera-double-bread-bowl-trying-2018-8">Panera decided to double its famous bread bowls - here's our verdict</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

You Searched For "tonnes of plastic waste" and got 4 results

Hindustan Unilever Limited’s Prabha Narsimhan shares latest steps that the company has taken towards sustainability to achieve its goal of 100% plastic waste collection by the end of 2021

Karuna Sharma

Goldman Sachs is banning plastic straws - and it's part of the firm's grand scheme to cut down on waste

Dakin Campbell

Scientists accidentally discovered a mutant enzyme that could help the world eliminate plastic waste

Alexandra Ma

Kroger is making an unprecedented move to kill plastic bags

Kate Taylor

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