Plastic recycling startup Banyan Nation has been shortlisted for The Circular Economy awards at the World Economic Forum to be held at Davos in January.

The Banyan’s path breaking work for Tata Motors in automotive bumper recycling and its partnership with L’Oréal, the French cosmetics giant, in shampoo bottle recycling put the company on the global sustainability map.

Banyan Nation is a pioneer in leveraging data intelligence to integrate thousands of last mile informal waste collectors and large bulk waste generators into its supply chain. The company developed a proprietary plastic cleaning technology that converts collected plastic waste into near virgin quality recycled granules (Better Plastic™) that global brands can use to make mainstream products and packaging.

The recycling trade in India is a livelihood business, dominated by marginalized sections of the society informally recovering high value plastics and supplying to hundreds of small and medium businesses who are also informal. Low cost takes precedence over dignity of labor, societal well-being, and environmental sustainability, resulting in a market that is highly fragmented with huge volatility in price, volume and quality of recycled plastic. Such an informal value chain lacks scientific rigor, traceability and accountability, making it almost impossible for large brands that have sustainability as a core business strategy to source consistent quality recyclates to advance their circular economy goals.

Mani Vajipey, Co-founder & CEO, Banyan Nation stated, “It is our mission to help brands sustainably Make In India by replacing the use of virgin plastic with recycled plastic that is comparable in quality and performance. The recognition at the World Economic Forum is a testament to the strength of innovations such as ours coming out of India. Within the next decade, almost all mainstream plastic products including food grade packaging will contain recycled materials. We see Banyan at the forefront of this paradigm shift.”

The Circulars, an initiative of the World Economic Forum, is the world’s premier circular economy award programme. The award offers recognition to individuals and organizations across the globe that are making notable contributions to the circular economy in the private sector, public sector and society. The annual awards are hosted at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos.

Banyan helps brands sustainably Make in India by using more recycled plastic instead of virgin plastic.

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