India needs better material, not more recycling to overcome its plastic problem: Bambru CEO Vaibhav Anant. Company trade news

Bambru, a metamatorial innovation company, has developed packaging solutions using renewable ingredients such as bamboo, marine algae and other natural fibers. The idea is that these products perform like plastic but disintegrate without damaging the environment.

Bambru In 2018, single-use was established to make commercially viable options for plastic. The company alone has seen an 8X growth in 2024, inspired by strategic participation FMCGE-commerce, and retail. Its financial trajectory has been strong, revenue growth is higher than 55 percent (year-to-year).

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Bambrew has earned investment from major venture capital firms, including Bloom venturesBlue Ashwa Capital, and Mumbai Angels, who have enabled it to enter R&D, scale production and deep market.

In a special conversation with Mint, Bambru founder and CEO, Vaibhav Anant, says that the target is to change the plastic with single-use. Sustainable packaging Accessually accessible to businesses in industries.

Unlike many options that struggle Basic structure limits When it comes to decomposition or waste treatment, Anant says, the material used by his company naturally breaks down, even in the real -world waste conditions. Excerpts edited by interview:

India remains the largest plastic waste generator in the world. Why?

India is using more plastic today than ever, as a result, our plastic waste is famous for the problem. The challenge is broadly that we do not have the right systems to address and manage it.

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‘9 million tonnes of plastic waste’

Every year, we produce more than 9 million tonnes plastic wasteAnd about 59 percent of it comes from packaging. On the one hand, how we consume and the shop is dramatically changed, due to the introduction of 10 minutes of delivery and spread E-commerceOur waste management is not creating structure.

There are efforts to address it, right?

Yes, active measures have been taken from the government such as the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules (2021) implemented in 2022, which aims to reduce the crisis by banning 19 categories of single-use plastic.

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However, the implementation has been weak at one level, and at the second level, single use is not responsible for several problematic varieties of plastic on plastic (eg) on ​​single use plastic. In addition, the recycling is a vast area, with innumerable challenges at every level, the separation begins with strategies.

Some behavioral issues too?

Many people believe that switching or so -called on paper bags Biodegradable plastics This will fix the issue, but the reality is more complex. Paper bags require too much water and energy to produce, and most biodegradable plastic does not actually break until most of the Indian cities are processed in highly controlled conditions. Result? These options often end as waste like regular plastic.

Then what is the solution?

Instead, we need an entire innings how we think about packaging – correct focus Continuous material And the systems that ensure that they are reused or dealt with properly. In Bambru, we work with businesses that want to move away from plastic, and we have seen that the biggest hurdle is not just the cost – it is also awareness and infrastructure.

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Bambru has invested from major venture capital firms, including Bloom Ventures, Blue Ashwa Capital, and Mumbai Angels, who have enabled it to expand, scale production and enter the market.

Many Indian cities rely on informal waste workers who collect, sort and recycle plastic, yet formal policies rarely support them. If we integrate them properly and create better recycling and composting systems, we can create a circular economy where plastic waste is minimized.

But this requires effort from all sides – businesses should invest in real options, the government must implement policies more strictly, and consumers should reconsider how they use and dispose of plastic. The problem is big, but if we work now, the solutions are within access.

Has has been focused on waste management instead of production control?

India’s plastic pollution approach has focused more waste management From production control. This strategic option is inspired by the country’s situation as a developing economy, where plastic plays an important role in industries such as packaging, retail and manufacturing.

In 2024 Global Plastic Treaty talks, India pushed to a model, which prefer better waste management and recycling rather than capping plastic production. The argument is clear – restricting plastic production can very aggressively disrupt industries, jobs and economic growth. However, relying a complete waste management is not a long -term solution, especially when waste production is one upward.

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Global experience suggests that countries dealing with plastic pollution, such as Rwanda and European Union, have strengthened Recurrence system With upstream measures such as phasing out unnecessary plastic and promoting options. India has certainly taken steps in this direction, such as banning some single-use plastic, but enforcement remains inconsistent, and plastic production continues to increase.

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Can permanent packaging serve as a true option?

Sustainable packaging is not just an option – this is the future. The real question is whether it can match plastic in strength, scalability and durability. In Bambru, we are actively proving that it can do it.

‘Pay attention to the material-unquisational approach’

For a very long time, the focus has been on reducing plastic, but without real, viable replacement. This is why we take a material-unknown approach, which naturally develop fertilizer solutions from bamboo, rebellion and seaweed, materials that disintegrate without industrial fertilizer while maintaining plastic strength and flexibility.

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The real challenge is not whether permanent packaging can work, but will industry and policy makers come back with its need.

How can companies infection in green options without compromising profitability?

Stability and profitability are not opposed to forces – when correct, they strengthen each other.

Stability and Profitability The forces are not resisting – when corrected, they strengthen each other. The key to infection in green options without financial stress is to treat stability as an investment, not a cost.

In Bambru, we see ourselves at the forefront of this innings. In five years, we go to industries to go to industries and aim to be a target to be a-FMCG, food delivery, e-commerce and beyond.

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