HUL to provide incentives to Indian startups developing plastic waste management methods

• ByStartupStory     |    August 30, 2022

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) announced the introduction of a programme on Tuesday that will provide funds and mentorship to Indian tech firms working in the area of plastic waste management and circularity. The ‘Transform Plastics Challenge’ is a collaboration between Unilever, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the United Kingdom, and EY, in collaboration with Social Alpha. 

As part of the programme, five Indian start-ups will each receive up to 1.6 crore in grant financing and equity investments, as well as mentorship and assistance in developing their businesses. The programme will seek submissions from start-ups that are already developing innovative and scalable plastic waste management solutions. 

Start-ups working on developing technical solutions for processing plastic waste, economically viable reuse or refill models, as well as material or substrate level breakthroughs that make packaging recyclable or biodegradable, will be identified by the Transform Plastics Challenge. 

Deepak Subramanian, HUL’s Executive Director of Home Care and GM of Home Care South Asia, said, “In keeping with the spirit of Transform, we seek to assist Indian start-ups in developing and growing solutions with the potential to be adopted on a global scale. We are pleased to collaborate with Social Alpha to assist empower the next generation of start-ups that will pave the way to a waste-free society.”

HUL has stated its intention to collect and process more plastic than it sells, as well as to use 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable plastic packaging by 2025. HUL, the creator of Dove soaps and Knorr soups, announced that it has met its collect and process objective four years ahead of plan in 2021. 

Smita Rakesh, Vice President and Partner at Social Alpha, said, “Entrepreneurship powered by innovation has a huge potential to address the problem of plastic waste and create impact through new material innovations, material recycling, complete packaging redesigns, and perhaps a more fundamental rethinking of end-customer delivery.”

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