Silent Efforts Louder Success: Indian firm ‘Banyan Nation’ makes up in the list for WEF Awards

Hyderabad, January 5: Push to ‘Make in India’ on a right path, Hyderabad’s plastic recycling start-up ‘Banyan Nation’ made to the top to become India’s first firm to get shortlisted for ‘The Circular Economy awards at the World Economic Forum’. 

Banyan’s path-breaking work for Tata Motors in automotive bumper recycling and its partnership with L’Oréal, the French cosmetics giant, in shampoo bottle recycling has put the company on the global sustainability map.

Banyan Nation, a T-Hub startup, is a pioneer in leveraging data intelligence to integrate thousands of last mile informal waste collectors and large bulk waste generators into its supply chain. The company developed a proprietary plastic cleaning technology that converts collected plastic waste into near virgin quality recycled granules (Better Plastic™) that global brands can use to make mainstream products and packaging.

 

“It is our mission to help brands sustainably ‘Make In India’ by replacing the use of virgin plastic with recycled plastic that is comparable in quality and performance.

The recognition at the World Economic Forum is a testament to the strength of innovations such as ours coming out of India. Within the next decade, almost all mainstream plastic products including food grade packaging will contain recycled materials. We see Banyan at the forefront of this paradigm shift,” Mani Vajipey, Cofounder & CEO, Banyan Nation said.

Founded by Mani Vajipey and Raj Madangopal in 2013 as a plastic recycling startup, Banyan Nation initially mapped out waste collectors across Hyderabad through a mobile app and was engaged in segregating and recycling plastic.

It also signed MoU with the Telangana government to support it in developing a standard operating procedure for government-generated e-waste where the government will use Banyan Nation’s IoT-enabled dashboard for waste management.

Earlier in June 2016, Banyan Nation also won the Intel & DST Innovate for India Challenge 2.0, for which it created a zero-waste platform to streamline and automate urban recycling operations at all stages.

The Circulars Award offers recognition to individuals and organizations across the globe that is making notable contributions to the circular economy in the private sector, public sector and society.