ITC partners Invest India to crowdsource ideas for single-use plastic substitution

New Delhi: Diversified entity ITC Ltd on Thursday said it has collaborated with Invest India, a non-profit venture by the central government for national investment promotion and facilitation, to crowdsource innovative ideas for single-use plastic substitution and automate waste segregation.

Under the collaboration, ITC Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division (PSPD) has launched the ITC Sustainability Innovation Challenge, which would support innovative startup ideas on sustainable packaging and smart waste management solutions, ITC said. As part of the initiative, through the Startup India portal, ITC PSPD is inviting responses from startups towards challenges laid out by the company to find sustainable and smart technology-based solutions that can substitute single-use plastics and automate waste segregation process with smart technology-based solutions to improve efficiency and speed.

ITC PSPD CEO Vadiraj Kulkarni said the disposal of plastic waste continues to pose the biggest challenge in solid waste management in India. The problem is further aggravated due to inefficient segregation of post-consumer waste at the source, which leads to a lot of waste ending up in landfills that are highly polluting.

"We, at ITC, believe that businesses, both big and small, with their immense managerial and innovative capacity, can come together to contribute significantly towards finding innovative and sustainable packaging and waste management solutions, leading to transformative changes in the society," Kulkarni added.

Invest India Managing Director and CEO Deepak Bagla said, "We look forward to accelerating efforts towards a more sustainable economic growth through the ITC Innovative Sustainability Challenge. Innovative startups will be able to showcase Made-in-India solutions that propel India towards a circular economy".