Indian PET recycler Ganesha Ecopet has expanded its capacity with the installation of two new lines from Austrian plastic technology specialist Starlinger. The new recycling lines, which became operational in mid-2024, had tripled Ganesha Ecopet’s annual production of bottle-grade recycled PET (rPET), raising it from 14,000 tonnes to a total of 42,000 tonnes, said Starlinger last week.
The new lines were installed at the recycler's Warangal facility in Telangana State in central India. Two other Starlinger lines producing PET flakes and recycled pellet for food-grade packaging, filament yarns, and fibres, have been in operation since 2022 at that site.
Ganesha Ecopet is a subsidiary of the Indian company Ganesha Ecosphere Ltd, which produces bottle-grade rPET pellets and flakes as well as recycled fibre from post-consumer bottle waste. The company's highest-grade rPET products are produced by Ganesha Ecopet. With the expansion in Warangal, the parent group had moved a step closer to its goal of recycling 25 per cent of India’s PET bottle waste by 2026. In the 2023/24 business year Ganesha Ecosphere recycled around 16-18 per cent of Indian arisings, according to the group's most recent annual report.
"Our goal is not only to recycle plastics but to create premium-quality, sustainable, and viable circular solutions for brands," Sharad Sharma, managing director at Ganesha Ecosphere, was quoted as saying in Starlinger's announcement. He noted that the company was trusted by various global FMCG brands like Coca-Cola to ensure the circularity and safety of their packaging.
"Ganesha Ecosphere is one of the trailblazers for a circular plastics economy in India," said Paul Niedl, commercial head of Starlinger recycling technology. "With their vast experience in the Indian plastics recycling sector and their willingness to invest in state-of-the-art technology they are able to transform post-consumer scrap into a high-quality secondary raw material for plastic packaging producers," he said.
Demand for food-safe recycled PET is expected to increase sharply in India in the next few years as provisions on extended producer responsibility (EPR) enacted under the country's 2022 Plastic Waste Management Rules come into effect. Brand owners and producers will be obligated to ensure that rigid packaging, including PET bottles, contains at least 30 per cent post-consumer recycled content by 2025. The required minimum share will be incrementally increased until it hits 60 per cent in 2029.
The anticipated impact of this mandate on the Indian rPET market was recently named among the reasons why PET producer Indorama Ventures Limited (IVL) is seeking to establish recycling capacity in India. Increasing consumer awareness and interest in considering sustainability were also highlighted in connection with both IVL's and Ganesha Ecopet's PET recycling capacity expansion projects.
