Exclusive: Ester Industries eyes true circularity at Interpack

Vaibhav Jha says the company is accelerating its transition from a commodity polyester manufacturer to a speciality technology firm, with a target to derive 80% of its revenue from speciality products within the next two to three years.

The Gurugram-headquartered company is moving away from the high-volume, low-margin commodity polyester market, instead betting its future on R&D across its three core business verticals: BOPET packaging films, speciality polymers, and rPET.
“We will call ourselves a fully technology company when 80% plus of our revenue starts coming from these speciality products,” he says. “We hope to reach that landmark in another couple of years or so.”

The chemical recycling breakthrough

A central pillar of this transition is Ester’s joint venture, ELITe, which signed a MoU valued at INR 1,600-crore with the Government of Gujarat. The project, a 50-50 partnership with Canada’s Loop Industries, aims to establish India’s first commercial-scale chemical polyester recycling plant in Bharuch, Gujarat.

Unlike traditional mechanical recycling, which is limited to clear PET bottles and degrades after two or three cycles, chemical recycling allows for infinite circularity. The Loop technology depolymerises waste into its base monomers, effectively resetting the material to a virgin-like state despite pigments, dyes, or chemical contaminants.

“This is the first and only textile-to-textile recycling solution that we are providing to the world from India,” Vaibhav Jha explains. “Mechanical recycling is possible only with clear PET bottles. There is no practical recycling solution available for textiles or even polyester laminates. This chemical recycling helps us provide a solution for truly circular textile-to-textile, bottle-to-bottle, and laminate-to-laminate solutions,” he adds.

The facility is designed to produce 70,000 tonnes of recycled PET resin annually. By upcycling end-of-life textiles that typically find themselves in landfills, Ester claims the process achieves an 81% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to virgin production.

Navigating global regulation

The investment is strategically timed to align with tightening global sustainability mandates. Vaibhav Jha believes that Europe is expected to mandate post-consumer textile recycled material usage for apparel sold within its territory

“Europe is the leader in sustainability regulations and the world follows,” he notes. EU’s Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulations (ESPR) has made textile a priority product group. It is expected to mandate minimum recycled content in textiles sold in the EU. ELITe will be one of the few solution providers for this demand. “This technology also fits very well into our packaging film business because the recycled material will help us provide the first-of-its-kind truly circular laminate-to-laminate recycling,” he shares.

He reveals that Ester has patented a specific film which, when combined with the chemical recycling technology, allows for true circularity. This addresses the issues found in multi-material structures, allowing converters to achieve a single polymer stream without sacrificing barrier properties.

The engineering of monomaterials

In the BOPET segment, Ester's focus has shifted toward monomaterial structures to satisfy EPR norms. Traditional laminates often mix polyester with other substrates, complicating the recycling stream.

Ester’s patented ultra-high heat-seal film allows for monomaterial polyester packaging, eliminating the need for secondary substrates. “The value proposition is that one can provide truly circular laminate-to-laminate recycled packaging using Loop’s depolymerisation technology,” he says.

This technical edge extends to the specialty polymers vertical, where recycled feedstock from the Bharuch plant allows Ester to innovate polymers that are not available elsewhere in the global market.

The cost of circularity

Despite India’s approach as a price-sensitive market, he argues the primary driver is value and efficiency. He points to India’s 90%+ PET bottle recycling rate as evidence of an inherent urge to be efficient. However, he acknowledges that sustainability now comes with a premium.

“Sustainability is going to come at a cost now that the world has woken up to the need. Ultimately, the costs will get shared across the value chain, and even the consumer will have to bear a bit of it. Market research suggests consumers are ready to pay a certain premium for sustainable products,” he says.

Vaibhav Jha notes that aggressive government regulations and consumer demand for a "sustainability story" are forcing the industry to adapt at a fast rate.

Servicing the global stage

Ester’s presence at Interpack 2026 signals an ambition to service developed economies. With innovative sustainable solutions (the company’s tag line), he observes that Indian converters are increasingly gearing up to provide high-tech solutions to global brand owners like Nike to reach their circularity targets.

“The key to success is going to be the technology edge that converters develop to serve global markets,” Vaibhav Jha says. He continues, “Our focus is to showcase the sustainable solutions we have across all products; be it films or specialty polymers, and telling the world about the new possibilities enabled by this technology investment.”