ITC ramps up its comprehensive initiatives for waste management and sustainable packaging

ITC Limited, with an aim to add on to the Swachh Bharat mission, is scaling up its integrated waste management and sustainable packaging initiatives.

ITC Limited, one of India's top multi-business conglomerates and a leader in sustainability, is significantly advancing its integrated waste management and sustainable packaging projects, which are both contributing to the Swachh Bharat objective.

Statement by the company

"We at ITC are immensely proud to be able to contribute meaningfully to the Prime Minister's vision of a Swachh Bharat through large-scale solid waste management interventions. The Company has deployed the principles of circular economy to implement scalable, sustainable and replicable models of waste management, besides investing in cutting-edge innovation in the area of sustainable packaging that substitutes single-use plastic," said S. Sivakumar, Group Head, Sustainability, Agri and IT, ITC Limited.

Prevention of Waste Management

Since its beginning, ITC's premier community-based initiative, Well Being Out of Waste, or ITC WOW, has reached more than 4.6 million homes, 5.2 million schoolchildren, and more than 2,000 corporations.

ITC's integrated programme has numerous advantages, including preventing waste from entering landfills, increasing supply chain effectiveness, fostering innovation, and creating jobs—another crucial national need. The company also manages 14.6 lakh households across 10 states through a distinct, community-driven approach of decentralised solid waste management.

As part of this initiative, municipalities and panchayats are given the tools they need to adopt waste management strategies that drastically cut the quantity of waste that ends up in landfills. The company has recently worked with the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, the Centre, and the India Sanitation Council to create 35 "lighthouse" villages demonstrating best practices on solid and liquid waste management across 17 districts in 10 states.

Sanitation and sustainable packaging

ITC has also spearheaded a first of its kind multi-layered plastic (MLP) collection and recycling program in Pune leveraging the R&D expertise resident within the ITC Life Sciences and Technology Centre.

ITC also operates a substantial sanitation programme that resulted in the installation of 39,400 individual Household Toilets (IHHTs), making 100% of project catchments Open Defecation Free. With women and girl children as its main beneficiaries, the programme has also made it possible to build 112 community restrooms and more than 2,000 restroom blocks in schools, all of which are currently sustained and maintained by the community.

Additionally, in order to replace single-use plastics, ITC's paperboards and packaging businesses are actively working to develop and promote sustainable packaging solutions on the laminated board and moulded fibre platforms.

Future plans

Over the next ten years, ITC will work to make sure that all packaging is reusable, recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable as part of its ambitious Sustainability 2.0 plan, led by Chairman Sanjiv Puri.

ITC has over the years demonstrated leading environmental stewardship efforts, and it has the distinction of being the first business in the world to have been solid waste recycling, water, and carbon positive for more than ten years.