Banyan Nation: Driving India`s Circular Economy
| Case Code: LDEN221 Case Length: 13 Pages Period: 2013-2022 Pub Date: 2024 Teaching Note: Available |
Price: Rs.400 Organization : Banyan Sustainable Waste Management Pvt. Ltd. Industry :Environment & Waste Management Services Countries : India Themes: Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainability, Product Launch,Supply Chain Management |
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts
Excerpts
The Early Days of Banyan
Armed with their extensive business and market knowledge, they decided to set up an SWM venture in India. They intended to bring about drastic changes in the SWM landscape of India through better practices, technological innovations, and grassroots activism. They then gave up their lucrative corporate jobs and returned to India. In July 2013, they formally incorporated Banyan.
Through their venture, the duo first thought of handling municipal solid waste and participated in a government tender process. However, the process dragged on for months, and they soon realized that urban local bodies and governments were not dynamic enough or aware about the need for proper SWM practices.
Front End – Smart Waste Mappr
Banyan offered free recyclable waste pickup services to townships, apartments, and small and medium businesses. It also helped some corporate entities dispose of their plastic in a better and more responsible manner. However, it was the informal plastic waste collectors and aggregators who provided it with the bulk of the plastic for recycling..
Back End
At the back-end, technology was used to ensure that the waste plastic was properly cleaned and graded, so that high quality standards would be maintained. The company set up a 20,000-sq-ft recycling facility in Hyderabad, wherein it employed its proprietary plastic cleaning and decontamination technology to process the waste plastic collected. The company claimed that its proprietary cleaning technology had been developed after several years of research and development on Indian waste streams..
The Product – Better Plastic
Banyan then produced a product that it referred to as Better Plastic, a near virgin quality polyolefin plastics (PE and PP) that was in the form of granules. The company claimed that Better Plastic could compete with virgin plastic on aspects such as quality, price (10-20% cheaper), and reliability. The granules also had a longer life span than those produced by the majority of recycling companies in the country..
The Road Ahead
Each year, Banyan recycled 3,600-tonnes of high-density plastic, which in turn saved huge carbon footprints . The company was aiming to have an installed capacity of 50,000 tonnes by 2024. By 2030, it hoped to replace 100,000 tonnes of virgin polymers with recycled plastics. Industry observers stated that the installed capacity of Banyan, as of 2022, was not even 1% of the demand for recycled plastics forecast in India, in 2025. Vajipey said, “We are scaling up our plastics washing technology to develop premium-quality recycled plastics in injection, blow and extrusion grade materials for applications across diverse industries.”..
Exhibits
Exhibit I: Harm Caused by Plastics
Exhibit II: Informal Plastic Recycling Supply Chain
Exhibit III: Different Processing Pathways for Plastic Waste
Exhibit IV: Banyan’s Awards, as of 2022
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