Dr S Sivaram: Without data, there is no analysis

At the fourth ResPack International Conference in Mumbai, Dr S Sivaram — former director of the CSIR- National Chemical Laboratory and currently honorary Professor Emeritus and INSA Emeritus Scientist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune — delivered a keynote address on the challenges of achieving circularity in polyolefin packaging.

"Packaging lies at the heart of our discussions around plastic waste," he began." "If we can solve the packaging plastics waste issue, we would, in effect, have solved the plastic waste problem."

Polyolefins — primarily polyethene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) — account for nearly 78% of global plastic packaging waste. In India alone, about 14-million tonnes of polyolefins were produced in 2024, with over 60% directed toward packaging. Yet, the reality is stark: only a fraction of this packaging waste is meaningfully recycled. Most are informally downcycled into low-quality products, which is far from the goal of true circularity. Sivaram drew attention to the shift in innovation drivers. "Twenty years ago, innovation was led by technology and markets," he said. "Today, sustainability and circularity form the third pillar." This evolving triad — technology, customer need, and sustainability — has made meaningful innovation more difficult, yet all the more necessary.

The data speaks volumes. India generates eight million tonnes of polyolefin packaging waste annually. Despite official claims of 60% recycling, most of it occurs in the informal sector and results in low-grade applications. As the presentation pointed out, "This is not circularity. If we don’t standardise and innovate, this waste will remain waste, no matter how much we reprocess it." Adding urgency is the concept of Plastic Overshoot Day, the date on which a country’s plastic waste generation surpasses its waste management capacity. In 2024, India hit this point on 20 April, months ahead of the global average on 5 September. "For the rest of the year, we are effectively borrowing against our future," Sivaram warned.

A key obstacle is India’s lack of robust, data-driven material flow analysis. An Australian study from 2024 made early attempts at mapping polymer waste streams, but with limited Indian data. "In a country with so much academic and industrial expertise, why has India not done this?" Sivaram asked. He said, “Without data, there is no analysis; and without analysis, there is no solution.”

One point he reiterated was, “Reuse is not the same as circularity.” Mechanical recycling, a common reuse strategy, merely delays waste, rather than closing the loop. "As an industr,y we must stop using these terms interchangeably? It creates confusion."

His presentation reinforced this, stating that polyolefins are chemically complex for simplistic recycling solutions. These polymers contain a diverse array of additives (stabilisers, pigments, inorganic fillers, processing aids) that often behave unpredictably after a single thermal processing cycle.

For example, Sivaram noted, “If you run a natural colour, single-use polypropylene product through an extruder, what comes out is often a grey or black product. Not because the polymer has degraded, it hasn’t, but because the additives have undergone little-understood secondary chemical transformations leading to the dark colour.”

This, he said, is worrying in food delivery packaging. Many containers manufactured from black recycled polypropylene are used in fast food home delivery services. These are not microwavable. Their use in such applications bypasses regulatory clearance. "This is not a good practice," he said, and urged the ResPack gathering to refrain from using black food packaging containers.

His solution? Transparency and redesign. The presentation called for QR code-based labelling on packaging, listing all additives, fillers, pigments, and printing inks. “Why can’t we create open-source data on these materials?” he asked, noting that such transparency is vital to making recycling safer and more effective.

Sivaram cited the Indian dairy sector — the world’s largest — as a missed opportunity for circularity. With over 2.5-million tonnes of LDPE used for milk packaging annually, each 4-gramme pouch is discarded after a single use. “With a focused effort, this could be a five-year success story,” he said, highlighting how India had pioneered flexible milk pouches in the 1980s but failed to make them circular.

His critique of the fragmented value chain was compelling. From resin producers and processors to brand owners and recyclers, the lack of coordination stymies progress. The presentation included a visual of this fragmented system, highlighting the importance of inter-industry dialogue. Dr Sivaram signed off saying, “We need more conversation among players across this value chain.”