India Plastic Pact Presents Roadmap For Country’s Flexible Packaging Industry

With an aim to advance a circular economy for flexible packaging in India, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in collaboration with a leading consumer packaging company and Embassy of Finland on Friday presented a roadmap for ‘managing films and flexible packaging in India’, with various stakeholders of the plastic value chain in the country.

The roadmap has been crafted on the basis of a set of guidelines titled 'Design for Recycling Guidance for Films and Flexible Packaging’ that was developed and launched by the CII-India Plastics Pact’s (IPP) initiative in December 2024.The guidelines have been designed with an aim to scale up the application of mono-material designs in the Indian market and provide technical and feasible inputs to organizations, supporting them in transitioning to recyclable flexible packaging.

What Does the Roadmap Say?

As per the newly drafted roadmap by the industrial advocacy group, the responsibilities of every stakeholder in the plastic value chain have been defined along with ‘areas of intervention and associated timelines’. The key stakeholders identified by the roadmap include the secretariat of the IPP, retailers, consumers, brands, converters, recyclers, waste management organizations, NGOs, investors and the government. In order to improve the management of flexible packaging in India, the roadmap clearly points out towards looking at some of the areas of intervention, which include design of packaging, segregation and collection of flexible packaging waste, improving the recycling of the collected materials and most importantly to identify, create and expand markets for recycled flexible packaging.

What is Flexible Packaging?

Produced from paper, plastic, film, aluminum foil, etc flexible packaging refers to any whose shape can be easily changed when filled while usage. These packages can include bags, pouches, liners, wraps and several other products. Currently, flexible packaging dominates India’s plastic usage, accounting for 73 per cent of all plastic packaging. On the other hand, the total share of the same in the US is 28 per cent and Europe is 45 per cent. It covers packaging in essential categories, including food products, personal care items as well as homecare products. However, the industry faces significant challenges in recyclability due to the widespread use of multilayered, non-recyclable materials. 

What is the India Plastic Pact?

The India Plastics Pact (IPP) is a business initiative managed by the CII that aims to create a circular economy for plastics packaging in India by bringing together businesses and NGOs across the plastics value chain. Being the only Plastics Pact in Asia, it is also part of a global network of 13 Plastics Pacts convened by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and WRAP. All signatories to the Pact commit to four time bound targets, which has been designed to drive changes in the efficient production, use and disposal of plastic packaging.

As a part of the roadmap that was presented, the identification of product specific packaging applications for trials of mono-material packaging while increasing its adoption, incorporation of recycled content in the flexible packaging portfolio and conducting awareness on segregation of flexible plastic packaging among consumers remain some of the key targets for the year 2025-26.