(Citation Han18 /L 1033) : Hul Techtonic Case Submission

HUL TECHTONIC CASE SUBMISSION
“We are the last generation with a real opportunity to save the world.” - Laurence Overmire
That our world today is standing dangerously close to an environmental crisis is a hard but clearly visible reality. The
invention of plastics in the year 1907 has not only revolutionized life for the better but in turn has also taken over our
natural ecosystems for the worse.
[ CITATION
To put things into context, about 381 million tonnes of plastic was produced in the year 2015,
Han18 \l 1033 ] which was around two-thirds the weight of the world’s total population. Safe to presume,
most of it is still here, trapped in our oceans and landfills, and will live for centuries after we are gone. Virtually every
piece of plastic that was ever made still exists in some shape or form (with the exception of the small
amount that has been incinerated).
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
The focus on virgin, single-use plastics has meant that around $120 billion dollars are lost every year to the economy from
products that are thrown away after a single use, and the issue is compounded by the fact that conventional collection,
recovery and recycling programs have struggled to keep pace with the sheer volume produced as the sheer economics of
managing single-use plastics almost demand their disposal rather than their recovery and reuse. Long-term solutions must
involve finding alternatives to plastic, but until that happens the focus must be on creating a "Circular Economy"
where we use only what has already been harvested from the Earth - and retroactively remove what is
already clogging up our oceans and landfills. A large part of the problem has been that conventional recycling
techniques can only "downcycle" plastic i.e., they take waste plastic to yield a less pristine and often
contaminated version of the original. Moreover, each time these materials are downcycled, the quality degrades
further leaving behind material with less and less useful value.
It is this school of thought through which we identified the following technological solutions to achieve Unilever’s goal of
closing the loop on plastic as a part of the Unilever Sustainable Plan:
LOOP FOR THE LOOP
Consider a deliciously baked chocolate cake on your The most common method in this case is the thermal
table. Now, imagine a technology that can essentially cracking. Furthermore, the fuel resulting from this
reverse the chocolate cake back into the ingredients process are sulfur-free and chemically pure.
that were used to make it, and not just that, reverse the Characterized in that they are ready-to-use and capable
egg yolks used in the process back into their shells. of storage and transport. At the same time the
performance of the plastics depolymerization
This is the story of a revolutionary technology by Loop module can be easily adapted to the size and
Industries[ CITATION htt \l 1033 ] developed in the type of supplies.
year 2010 called “Depolymerisation”. A technology
which requires no heat or pressure to convert HUL has its current focus on the loop shopping
plastic waste- used plastic bottles, carpets, jars system where the products are shipped directly
into basic chemical building blocks which can to consumers and then returned and refilled. The
then be used for producing any plastic product as use of technology can help accentuate the efforts
desired while resulting in fuel oil in the process. even for those products which do not fall in the
current ecosystem.
MAKING PLASTICS BETTER
A trademark of Hyderabad based Banyan Nation, it is leading automotive company (making new bumpers
the result of a proprietary plastic cleaning from discarded ones) and a global cosmetics company
technology which converts collected post (making new bottles from discarded ones), establishing
consumer and post industrial plastic waste into circular economy leadership in the automotive and
high quality recycled granules – Better beauty sector respectively, that can be extended to
Plastic™[ CITATION htt1 \l 1033 ] – comparable in other industries.
quality and performance to virgin plastic.
Not just that, their award winning data intelligence
Banyan's proprietary plastic cleaning technology platform integrates thousands of informal
removes inks, coatings, and other contaminants using recyclers into our supply chain and also helps
environment friendly detergents and solvents to supply cities manage their waste more effectively.
near virgin quality recycled granules to brands, a first in
India highly informal, low tech industry. Banyan This switch to Better Plastic™will help HUL
pioneered closed loop recycling initiatives with India's reduce its virgin plastic consumption which it
aims to achieve by 2025.
A SNIP LESS CAN GO A LONG WAY

It might seem very convenient to snip off or tear a can even enter water bodies, and as a result, marine
portion of milk sachet or washing powder to dig right in. organisms may mistakenly consume them.
But, do we give in much thought to where these small Thus, we propose to leverage zipper and chain in
pieces of plastic end up? Even if these small pieces packaging as that would lead to a fundamental
are thrown into a designated non-biodegradable change in which the packaging is cut open and
bin, they do not usually make it to recycling hence is a fool-proof way to resolve this last mile
plants. problem.
Here, the focus primarily lies on re-thinking the
Rain and wind carry these smaller fragments into old ways of packaging by redisgn which is united
drainage systems, which could lead to clogging. These towards HUL’s focus on using lighter, stronger
and better materials which cause lower
environmental impact.
Figure 1: The technological solutions for various stages of value-chain for product
References
http://banyannation.com/. (n.d.).
https://www.loopindustries.com/en/tech. (n.d.).
Ritchie, H., & Roser, M. (2018, September). https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution. Our World in Data.
Wautelet, T. (2018). The Concept of Circular Economy: its Origins and Evolution.

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HUL TECHTONIC CASE SUBMISSION

A SNIP LESS CAN GO A LONG WAY

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