CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune jointly with Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) and several other companies from Pune have achieved a breakthrough to manufacture useful moulded plastic components from COVID-19 PPE waste. The undertaken pilot project has the potential to scale up and replicate throughout the country to convert PPE waste into useful and safe products. A substantial increase in demand for single use plastic items such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), masks, gloves, etc. has been observed since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. Across India, more than 200 tons of COVID-19 related waste was generated every day in May 2021. So far, this hazardous PPE waste is incinerated at central waste management (BMWM) facilities. Incineration is energy-intensive and leads to the release of harmful greenhouse gases.
CSIR-NCL, RIL and other companies embarked on a mission to develop an end-to-end process for effective recycling of COVID-19 plastic waste to produce value-added plastic products ensuring decontamination of COVID-19 plastic waste, focusing on the conversion of the plastic waste suitable for downstream processing and identification of potential stakeholders / markets for creating value for entire supply-chain.
CSIR-NCL and RIL have now signed an MoU to scale up the production to pilot-scale, laying a path to take the concept to the national level. A pilot scale of 100 Kg in the Pune city area was successfully implemented by collaborating with Pune-based companies, viz. M/s APPL Industries Limited, M/s SKYi Composites, M/s Harsh Deep Agro Products, M/s Urmila Polymers, M/s Jai Hind Autotech Pvt. Ltd., who produced value-added products.
