Co plans to increase production of recycled paper.
With
a production capacity of over 160,000 tonnes of
recycled paperboards a year, the mills of ITC
Ltd at Kovai and Bhadrachalam have helped the
company attain the distinction of being negative
solid waste, said Mr R. Srinivasan,
Member-Corporate Management Committee.
“While recycled paperboards may account for less
than 5 per cent of ITC’s turnover across 13
businesses, it has helped the company achieve
the mark of being negative solid waste,” Mr
Srinivasan told Business Line.
The
company not only recycles its own wastes but
also that of other companies, he said.
With
the demand for paperboards set to rise, ITC is
hopeful of taking the production of recycled
paper to 170,000 tonnes a year.
“We
are an under-packaged country at present but the
revolution is slowly taking place and we are
moving from commodities to brand. This will
boost the need for packaging and recycled
board,” Mr Srinivasan pointed out.
Awareness
The
recovery rate of paper in India is less than 20
per cent compared to Europe and USA who are
above 60 per cent. “There is a need to create
awareness among people in order to procure more
raw materials for recycled paper and paperboards
from within the country,” he said.
ITC
imports 20,000 tonnes of waste paper.
People should be made aware of source
segregation. “Source segregation into
paper-glass-metal-plastics will help greatly and
will reduce the pressure on municipal
landfills,” he observed.
Boons of Recycling
A
waste paper can be ideally recycled 7-8 times by
mixing a bit of fibre each time, Mr Srinivasan
said. “Recycling not only saves energy, water
and money for the country but also saves the
municipal landfills from paper burial that
occupies space and increases carbon footprint by
emitting methane,” he said.
ITC
is actively promoting the WOW (Wealth out of
Waste) initiative in Hyderabad, Bangalore,
Chennai and Coimbatore to help increase the
recovery of waste paper. The company provides
special bags to accumulate dry wastes such as
paper, plastic and metals and arranges periodic
collection through outsourced agencies. The
segregated dry waste can save almost 40 per cent
of municipal garbage handling costs, he pointed
out.
ITC
has taken a number of initiatives to reduce
energy and water consumption at its mill in
Kovai. “We have undertaken many initiatives
after taking over the Kovai mill in 2004 (from
BILT) such as co-generation power, revamped
electrical drives and ultra-filtration of water
and better productivity besides recycling of
wastes for tertiary uses,” he said.
