PepsiCo India expands plastic waste initiative to Agra

Following its success in Mathura and Vrindavan, PepsiCo India in partnership with The Social Lab (TSL) has announced the expansion of Tidy Trails, an initiative focused on education and awareness around plastic circularity to Agra in Uttar Pradesh.

With support of the Agra Nagar Nigam, the initiative will share best practices with shopping establishments to support plastic waste management and recycling in the city.

As part of the initiative, a dedicated mobile van has been deployed to visit local shops across Agra, collecting post-consumer plastic waste from over 500 shopping establishments across five market associations. In the first month of the pilot, over 50kgs of plastic waste collected on average daily and sent for recycling. Over 500 specially branded dustbins were distributed to the shopping establishments to mark the launch.

The Tidy Trails Agra chapter was virtually inaugurated by Ashwini Kumar Choubey, minister of state, Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change, and flagged off by Nirmala Dixit, member, UP Mahila Aayog in the presence of dignitaries.

Umesh Garg, independent director, IFCI, Syed Areeb Ahmad, DSP, Agra Police, Pankaj Bhushan, environment engineer, Agra, Sudesh Yadav, Swacch Bharat Mission head, Agra, AK Shrivastava, CMO, Agra, Garima Singh, chief government affairs and communications officer, PepsiCo India, Sahil Arora, CEO, The Social Lab (TSL) and Adesh Gupta, director (Advisory Board), The Social Lab.

In line with the company’s pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) initiative, PepsiCo has launched various initiatives  around plastic waste management in Uttar Pradesh to help build a world where plastic never becomes waste. Under the Tidy Trails initiative, all plastic waste collected from shops will go to waste collectors for segregation, and later will be recycled and converted into useful items such as benches and chairs, to be distributed across parks and offices of Agra. To commemorate the launch, PepsiCo India will also distribute 60 benches made of plastic, recycled with 21 century Polymers, for installation in Agra.

Addressing virtually, AshwiniChoubey said, “The challenge of plastic pollution demands a collective effort, where public and private sectors work together for common good. By combining the innovation and resources of the private sector, the administrative strength of the government and public responsibility, we can forge a path towards a cleaner, greener India..”

Garima Singh said, “At PepsiCo India, we are guided by our ‘Winning with pep+’ philosophy and are consistently working to build a world where plastic never becomes waste by reducing, recycling, and reinventing. Aligned with this vision, we introduced ‘Tidy Trails’ – a special initiative to sustainably manage post-consumer plastic waste in Mathura Vrindavan in 2021. Following its success, we are excited to launch the program in Agra with the support of Agra Nagar Nigam.”

Sahil Arora said, “TSL is committed to environmental preservation and promotion of circular economy initiatives like Tidy Trails. In today’s world, plastic has emerged as one of the most pressing environmental challenges but if re-used and recycled, plastic has many uses which have not been explored by communities.”

The Tidy Trails initiative was launched in Mathura-Vrindavan in September 2021 with the vision to encourage and empower local citizens of the city to keep their environment clean and set an example to inspire all members of communities.

As part of the program, 25,000 kgs of plastic was collected from 800 establishments across the city and involved 70 municipal wards. Through various awareness drives, events, nukkad-nataks and competitions, the initiative successfully reached 6.2 lakh people with focus on driving behavioral change towards responsible plastic waste management.