Tetra Pak and partners raise mass awareness about waste management, recycling and more

India (30 June, 2021) : A very important part of promoting a behavioural change among consumers is regular communication and awareness drives. Tetra Pak, along with collection partners, awareness partners, NGOs, recyclers and industry body – AARC (Action Alliance for Recycling Cartons) continues to organize various public campaigns and activations to educate consumers about the importance of waste segregation and recycling. These awareness drives reach out to diverse consumer groups such as school children, home-makers, youth and others; and cover different geographies across India. In addition, Tetra Pak’s collection partners also focus on educating waste-pickers about the value of collecting used carton packs to augment their household income.

Here we capture highlights from some of the most recent activities:

Sustainability encompasses our entire value chain, says Jaideep Gokhale, Tetra Pak South Asia

Is it enough to focus on just recycling, or is there a need to elevate the conversation to talk about circularity, decarbonization and take a more strategic view?

This World Environment Day’s theme – Restoring Ecosystem – gives us an opportunity to reflect on how well crafted our own priorities are with regard to environmental sustainability. Is it enough to focus on just recycling, or is there a need to elevate the conversation to talk about circularity, decarbonization and take a more strategic view? We are #GenerationRestoration, and it is up to us to take strong actions now to address the climate crisis. However, no one can go this alone. The government, manufacturers, food and beverage brands and us, consumers, have a role to play.

Many corporate organizations have stepped up with strong commitment, and on-ground action to lead this sustainability transformation. One such company is Tetra Pak, a world leading processing and packaging company that is amongst the world’s most reputed organizations for their commitment to environmental sustainability. A company of Swedish heritage, Sustainability has been embedded in their corporate strategy since inception over six decades ago.

Jaideep Gokhale – Sustainability Director, Tetra Pak South Asia talks to Financial Express on how Tetra Pak views their own role and that of the industry, and what can India learn from the world. Read the full interview here

Desk donation and awareness event in Shimla:

Tetra Pak India, together with the Shimla Municipal Corporation donated 20 desks in the presence of Honorable Shri Suresh Bhardwaj, Minister- Urban Development, Town & Country Planning. The desks are made from recycled carton packages, and the donation is part of Tetra Pak’s ongoing efforts to raise awareness about waste segregation and recycling.

In addition, over 20 garden benches and 10 bins made of recycled cartons were installed along the Mall Road in Shimla and other prominent locations. The intent is to inspire citizens to start looking at used cartons not as waste, but as a valuable resource. Tetra Pak has been promoting the recycling of carton packages for many years, including the donation of thousands of recycled such items to beneficiaries across the country. Shri Suresh Bhardwaj formally flagged off the donations by unveiling the first recycled bench on Mall Road. He also handed over the desks to the Principal of Govt. Senior Secondary School, Kasumpti, Mrs. Meera Sharma. Appreciating the initiative, Shri Bhardwaj also expressed his wish to see the initiative strengthen with support of the local citizens and assured all possible support on behalf of the people of Shimla.

Radio campaign by AARC (Action Alliance for Recycling beverage Cartons) in partnership with Pollution Control Boards in Chandigarh, Maharashtra and Karnataka

AARC had Radio awareness campaign in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka & UT of Chandigarh. The focus of campaigns were on recycling of packaging material like carton packages and emphasizing on the importance of segregation.

The objectives of the campaign were five-fold:

• Address the topic of waste management
• Particularly focus on carton waste & managing the same
• Educate listeners on waste management and its pros
• Sharing success stories
• Busting myths & addressing FAQs

In Maharashtra, AARC ran a 2-month long Radio awareness campaign in the cities of Mumbai MMR, Pune, and Nagpur which successfully concluded in the first week of April. The campaign was run in partial financial assistance with Maharashtra Pollution Control Board. The campaign focused on Waste management and recycling in the cities of Mumbai, Pune, and Nagpur. As per the weekly listenership numbers, the campaign has reached more than 50 Lakhs listeners. During the course of the campaign, the Radio team received interesting stories from the community.

Similar 2-month long campaign was run in Bengaluru in Karnataka and Chandigarh. The campaigns were supported by KsPCB and CPCC, respective Pollution boards of the state and UT. The campaigns had a total weekly reach of 16 lakhs in Bengaluru and 8-9 lakhs in Chandigarh, across each week of the 8 week long campaigns.

In addition, in weeks 4 and 8 of the CPCC campaign, stakeholder interviews of Mr. Debendra Dalai, Member Secretary of Chandigarh Pollution Control Committee and Dr. Praveen Aggarwal, CEO AARC were conducted.

These campaigns received active engagements from the listeners where they enquired about the various dos and don’ts for package disposal, all in all, the awareness and education propagated through the campaign will go a long way in improving source segregation.

Radio campaign by Waste 360 Solutions in Chennai

Tetra Pak tied up with Chennai-based waste management social venture - Wasted 360 solutions in December 2020 to kick-off a program called ‘Take Me Back’. This program aims to raise consumer awareness about recycling of cartons and setting up ‘drop-off centers’ easily accessible to the public. Despite the challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, Wasted 360 solutions and Tetra Pak continue to find creative ways to keep the awareness alive.

Most recently, the team launched a ‘race to 50,000 cartons’ in partnership with Fever FM Chennai to rally the masses to collect 50,000 cartons to be converted into desks for a lesser privileged government-aided school in Chennai. The race was kicked-off on World Environment Day 2021 and will continue till end of 2021.

Design for Good Challenge by RUR Greenlife

In order to make recycling sustainable, it is imperative for recycled materials to become mainstream. An important catalyst to bring this change can be design and architecture students who can use their creativity to solve social and community challenges, while also making them environmentally sound. RUR Greenlife, a partner or over 11 years, under the aegis of the collaborative program called Go Green with Tetra Pak, rolled out a Design for Good Challenge, inviting designers – students and professionals – to come up with design ideas for products and solution to be made using boards (made from recycled cartons). There were 4 categories to choose from – Wall Mural, Furniture, Community Space and Gifting.

Step 1 - submit the objective and drawings of the proposed products which were evaluated by a jury. Step 2 - we shortlisted the best entries and sent them recycled boards to create prototypes. Step 3 - designers created the prototypes and sent them to us. Finally, winners for each category were felicitated in a ceremony on World Environment Day.

Do watch this short video to catch glimpses from this campaign.

‘Green Gurukul’ Challenge by Waste Warriors:

The Green Gurukul Challenge is an all India Inter-School Competition for children to participate in and solve environmental issues in the country through Innovation. This competition was conducted by Waste Warriors, a well-known NGO based in Uttarakhand.

With the growing negative impact of waste on our waste, it is crucial to make the youth aware of waste management issues. Keeping this in mind Waste Warriors introduced a month-long competition “The Green Gurukul Challenge” on the theme of solid waste management and climate change. In the middle of the second wave of covid-19, when most students were stuck at home with nothing to keep them engaged, the challenge enrolled 450+ students from 64 schools in 22 cities, taking on 1300 tasks over this one-month challenge from April 19th, 2021 to May 19th, 2021.

Throughout the competition, children were challenged to work in teams, collaborate with neighbors, identify potential partners who can help them, guide them, and scale up their projects. In summary, students’ and mentors’ reflective writings revealed that the challenge provided all teams a space to learn, make mistakes, and realize their strengths through skill-based tasks. Many mentors and students shared about their realization of how they learned to lead teams, to solve problems with a positive approach, more structured and creative methods. With the challenge, the young student population across India was equipped with creative problem-solving, leadership, research, and teamwork skills.

The winning & top teams were awarded cash prizes along with trophies and goodies made out of recycled boards made from used carton packages.