IKEA

Swedish Furniture retailing giant IKEA makes products from waste. Last year, it also announced that
it is going to use agriculture waste to make furniture and hence can tackle Delhi and likewise pollution
woes across the country. The idea is to convert paddy residue into raw materials for its products.
After starting off in India, it will further scale up the developed model in other parts of the world.

ADITYA BIRLA
Aditya Birla believes in prudent management of waste and hence creating wealth from waste. It has
set an ambitious target of 75% waste repurposed (recycled, reused or recovered) by 2030. In FY18,
it was around 25%[3]. Moreover, it is also taking steps toward creating value from waste. Ex - it has
partnered with Repasack in Europe which has enabled Aditya Birla to recycle its paper packaging.
In India, it is also exploring the possibility of sending tank bottom sludge and waste refractory to be
reused as a fuel at nearby cement plants.

GODREJ
Godrej has not only been improving the manufacturing processes using 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle)
but has also been actively engaging with youth and communities. It has patterned with Greater
Hyderabad Municipal Corporation to promote better methods of solid waste management. The
final aim is to achieve the target of ‘zero waste to landfill’[4].

ADIDAS
Last year, in continuance with its sustained efforts towards environmental sustainability, Adidas
announced that it would use only recycled plastics by 2024[1]. Since 2015, it has also been partnering
with “Parley for the oceans” (an initiative to prevent harm to marine life from plastic pollution) and
has been using collected and recycled waste from the oceans in manufacturing shoes. It is putting
significant focus on developing closed loop products supported by its Take Back initiatives in various
parts of the world[2].

SELCO INDIA
SELCO had setup the first commercial Municipal Solid Waste-processing unit in India in 1999. It
has installed around 6.6 MW using RDF (Refused derived fuel, it is produced from various types of
waste such as municipal solid waste, industrial waste etc) pellets as energy source. SELCO
Foundation, a not-for-profit public charitable trust set up in 2010, operates SELCO Innovation Labs,
an incubation centre for renewable energy ventures.
INTEL
Since 2008, Intel has recycled more than 75% of the total waste generated by its operations, and in
an effort to reduce waste in 2013, the company linked a portion of employees’ compensation to solid
waste recycling metrics.

It aims to achieve zero hazardous waste to landfill by 2020, and recycling rates of 90% for non-
hazardous waste.

It also invests in Water restoration and treats around 80% of the water used by it, future target is to
attain 100% treatment by 2025. Overall, Intel through its environmental sustainability activities
attempts to reduce its environmental footprint as well as develop technologies that can help
others to reduce their footprints.

Link for a video - https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/corporate-responsibility/investing-in-

water-restoration-video.html

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS (TI)

TI has a strong history of environmental stewardship and has made significant investments towards
efficient use, reuse, or recycle of materials across its operations. TI also reduces its potential
environmental footprint by sourcing materials responsibly, as well as appropriately managing waste
handling and disposal. All the major productions site around the world operate robust recycling
programs for industrial and nonindustrial waste. For example, recycled water is used in the
fabrication process.

ACCENTURE
Among Accenture’s top priorities are its reuse and recycling efforts —including the management of
e-waste and water. Electronic Waste (e-waste) is the most significant environmental aspect in
Accenture's waste stream and includes laptops and workstations with disposal method tracked in
Accenture’s global asset management system.

In fiscal 2017, it maintained strong results for responsible disposal of e-waste. More than 99
percent of the total disposed equipment—more than 73,000 laptop and desktop computers weighing
more than 300 metric tons—was disposed of by methods avoiding landfill, primarily through supplier
reclamation and responsible disposal vendors.

HCL
HCL has created the online process of e-waste recycling request registration, where customers
(both individual and corporate) can register their requests for disposal of their e-waste. Apart
from corporate customers, HCL has extended its e-waste collection program to retail customers
also through its HCL Touch spread points spread across the country. HCL extends the recycling
facility to its users regardless of the fact, when and where they purchased the product.

OPPO
Oppo has collaborated with 3R Recycler to meet its Extended Producer Responsibility obligations
as envisaged in the E-waste Management Rules, 2016 of GoI. India is at present one of the top 5
e-waster generator in India, which will follow an upward graph with increasing consumption of
electronic products for both personal and commercial use. EPR as a policy measure could help recycle
e-waste in an organised manner. Presently, both dumping and recycling are majorly confined to
informal sector. To create an organised and formal ecosystem for e-waste disposal and recycling,
mainstreaming of such collaborations (Oppo-3R Recycler) and further facilitating them can be the
way forward.

Sources

[1] - https://www.ecowatch.com/adidas-recycled-plastics-2587520180.html
[2] - https://www.adidas-group.com/en/sustainability/products/end-of-life/
[3] - https://sustainability.birlacarbon.com/environment/waste.html
[4] - http://www.godrej.com/community-waste.html