Flipkart on Thursday announced that as of August 1, it has cut usage of single-use plastics by 25 per cent across its packaging value chain.

India’s largest e-commerce marketplace also made a commitment to eliminate single-use plastics in packaging and move towards a 100 per cent recycled plastic consumption in its own supply chain by March 2021.

As part of its long-term sustainability initiatives, Flipkart is working on introduction of eco-friendly paper shreds, replacing poly pouches with recycled paper bags, and replacing bubble wraps and airbags with carton-waste shredded material and 2-Ply roll to name a few.

Under this commitment, Flipkart has also filed for the EPR (extended producer responsibility) and is targeting 30 per cent collection back in the first year to begin with and is committed to maximise the recycled content in single-use plastic.

“At Flipkart, we believe that sustainable business practices not only help us preserve our environment, but make us more efficient and ensure longevity. Creating alternatives for single-use plastic packaging is one of the significant steps we have taken towards fulfilling our commitment to create a sustainable ecosystem. Our long-term vision is to eliminate the use of plastic and maximise the use of recycled and renewable materials” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Group CEO, Flipkart.

Earlier this year, Flipkart had announced the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) in its last-mile delivery network, with the aim to replace nearly 40 per cent of its existing last-mile fleet of delivery vans with EVs by March 2020.

At its corporate office in Bengaluru that has close to 8,500 employees, Flipkart does not use plastic cutlery, encourages steel containers and bottles, glassware to serve beverages and also segregates waste at source.

By leveraging technology in its workflow at fulfilment centres Flipkart optimises the type and volume of packaging to be used, instead of leaving it to human decision and was also recently certified ISO 14001 for its strategic facilities, a crucial benchmark for the preparedness to prevent environmental pollution in the workplace.

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