Chocolate maker =”https://www.mondelezinternational.com/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Mondelez International has made a “significant" investment in the =”https://www.circulatecapital.com/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF), which works towards finding business solutions for collection of plastic waste, especially for multi-layered packaging film. Circulate Capital Ocean Fund is the world’s first investment fund focused on resolving the plastic crisis in India and other parts of Southeast Asia.
The fund provides financing to waste management, recycling, and circular economy startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises across India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. CCOF works towards identifying recycling collection solutions and draws funding to scale and replicate such solutions by working with large companies, Mondelez said in a statement on Monday.
“The investment by Mondelez International will focus on supporting the development of infrastructure to physically collect, sort, and recycle packaging, especially flexible plastic packaging, supporting a circular pack economy. The Ocean Fund invests in companies that work directly on addressing local infrastructure bottlenecks for plastics, including flexibles," it added.
The maker of Oreo cookies and Dairy Milk chocolates has been upping the ante on resolving the plastic crisis in the country—where plastic packaging waste produced by large fast-moving consumer goods companies is often hard to recycle. Undisposed plastic packaging ends up adding to the country's growing plastic pollution crisis.
Earlier this year, the company awarded a grant to Bengaluru-based NGO Hasiru Dala that will pilot a project to recycle multi-layered packaging (MLP) waste to build alternatives to plywood that can have both commercial and consumer usages. The pilot set out a target to convert 600 tonnes of MLP waste per annum into WoW boards—used to make furniture apart from their application in construction and building purposes.
Investment in CCOF is another significant step towards addressing the issue of multi layered packaging waste and recycling efforts in India, it said.
As part of its commitment to reducing its environmental impact, Mondelez is addressing the biggest sustainability challenges relevant to our business, including plastics pollution and climate change, Deepak Iyer, president for India, Mondelez International, said.
“Our focus is to support development of a circular pack economy and we want to realize this ambition by using less packaging, by providing the best possible packaging that is designed to be recycled and support the development of infrastructure to physically collect, sort and recycle packaging especially flexible plastic packaging," he added.
Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF) has invested in six key players of the Indian waste management and recycling value chain including Lucro Plastecycle Pvt. Ltd, Nepra Waste Management Pvt. Ltd, Srichakra Polyplast (India) Pvt. Ltd, Rapidue Technologies (Recykal), Ricron Panels and Dalmia Polypro Industries.
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