PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2019

EDITOUR PET planet Insider Vol. 19 No. 09/19 www.petpla.net 24 How a leading converter in India is positioning itself on recycling Bottles, containers and closures for non-food applications March 2019 We met: Dr Surendra Agarwal, Founder Tour Sponsors: The Creative Plastic Group, which is based in Mumbai, looks back on 30 years of experience in plastic conversion. Since the launch of its first plant in 1986, the company has paid consistent attention to sustainable management as an essential part of its corporate philosophy. The founder and head of the packaging company, Dr Surendra Agarwal, provided us with a detailed explanation of the importance of dealing with waste and emotional attachment in everyday business. The Creative Plastic Group, one of the country’s leading plastics pro- cessing businesses, has 14 plants in India and employs around 1,000 people. The company is also scaling operations in global markets includ- ing the UK and UAE, with additional plants planned in other markets such as Indonesia, USA, Germany, South Africa, etc. It manufactures more than 3.65 billion containers a year, easily enough to be classified as a large- scale producer in any market. The distribution of its production facilities across India enables it to deliver its strategy of serving its clientele quickly. Its conversion processes include injection moulding, injection blow moulding, extrusion blow moulding, injection stretch blow moulding, label- ling and printing. In total, Creative Plastic operates between 300 and 400 machines; the set-up of the equipment is almost identical at all of the plants and includes suppliers like Husky Injection Molding Systems, Krauss Maffei and Ferromatic Milacron for injection moulding. “We are in the fortunate position of being able to partner with compa- nies who share our mindset of creat- ing and building long-term win-win relationships. We have been privi- leged to work with a select roster of global clients, many of whom we have worked with for upwards of 25 years.” explained Dr Agarwal. Over the years, the company has invested heavily in research and development. Its current customers include Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Marico and Johnson & Johnson. Of all the plastics processed, PET accounts for approximately 30% of the total volume, with the remaining 70% being equally divided between HDPE and PP. The materials come from Reliance or Dow, for example. Creative Plastic likes to keep its finer details private and rules out factory visits, with the company preferring to operate outside the media hype so as to protect its suppliers, customers and operational processes. Dr Agarwal says that the company takes human resources very seriously. “We very much consider our em- ployees to be our company’s greatest asset,” he said. “Interpersonal rela- tions here are informal; things have always been like that here, and they will stay that way.” The founder of the company isn’t able to hide his enthu- siasm for the subject of packaging, and above all else, for sustainability. In conversation, it quickly becomes clear that he lives what he loves and vice versa. Dr Agarwal explained that under the protocol of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), an NGO for the evalu- ation of corporate emissions, Creative achieved a score of 99% in the ecol- ogy category in 2017 and now “Lead- ership A”. Descriptions of ways to deal with post-consumer waste that he pro- actively initiated accounted for more than half the total time of his interview with us. He mulls things over a lot - Meeting Creative Plastic’s founder Surendra Agarwal (right)