Earlier in 2020, in an exclusive interview with Paper Mart, Mr. Mahesh Pratap Singh, Head Sustainability and Social Responsibility-Flipkart, told that how the e-commerce marketplace has already reduced the use of plastic packaging by 50% in our own supply chain and are working on fully eliminating it.
July 7, 2021
Flipkart, India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace, has eliminated all single-use plastic packaging used across its fulfilment centres in India, delivering on its public commitment to move to plastic-free packaging in its own supply chain by 2021.
Interview with Mr. Mahesh Pratap Singh, Head Sustainability and Social Responsibility, Flipkart.
This has been achieved across more than 70 facilities of Flipkart spread all over India, where Flipkart has eliminated single-use plastic packaging by introducing the most scalable sustainable alternatives such as eco-friendly paper shreds, replacing poly pouches with recycled paper bags, replacing bubble wraps with carton waste shredded material and 2 Ply roll to name a few. Throughout this process, Flipkart has also ensured that it is fully compliant with all EPR regulations and through its network of recyclers, the equivalent quantity of single-use plastic going to consumers is fully recycled.
Having achieved this milestone, Flipkart is now actively working with its seller partners who fulfill customer orders directly from their locations to educate them and enable them to move towards alternative materials. Furthermore, Flipkart is actively working with the ecosystem to understand how it can best implement other initiatives to create a more circular economy for plastics so that the entire ecosystem can move towards a more sustainable future. Through proactive interventions and guidance, Flipkart has already achieved a 27% reduction in the use of single-use plastic packaging in its seller fulfillments.
Hemant Badri, Senior Vice-President and Head of Supply Chain at Flipkart, said, “At Flipkart, we place great emphasis on sustainable and responsible business practices. Moving towards 100% single-use plastic elimination is one of the significant steps we have taken towards fulfilling our commitment to creating a sustainable ecosystem. We achieved this while navigating a tough year impacted by Covid and are proud that our teams kept the priorities in line. We are now focused on enabling our seller ecosystem to adopt sustainable packaging alternatives as well and to create positive environmental and social impact across the entire supply chain”.
Some of the other key initiatives by Flipkart include ‘E-commerce ready packaging’, where Flipkart has been able to ship close to 15% of products without adding a secondary layer of packaging. Flipkart’s ambition is to reduce the need for an outer layer by working with brands across apparel, electronics and home furnishings to ship their products in the original manufacturer/brand packaging. Flipkart also is working towards making sure that the packaging used does not cause any deforestation by scaling packaging from recycled and alternative materials.
Also Read: Flipkart Achieves 50% Reduction in Plastic Packaging by Shifting to Paper.
Some of the other efforts that Flipkart is working on include:
- Responsible forestry and sourcing
- Plastic free returns in the supply chain
- Plastic-free returns for sellers
Through these efforts, Flipkart continues on the sustainability journey and further strengthens its commitment to sustainable solutions for packaging and realize its vision of holistic, sustainable growth.
