Avesthagen introduces India’s first 100% biodegradable plastic in Himachal

KUMARHATTI: Avesthagen Limited, a Bangalore based knowledge-based Life Sciences Company and its joint venture partner, Limagran has launched an eco-friendly and biodegradable plastic for the Indian market particularly for states like Himachal and Uttaranchal where use of polythene bags have been banned .

Disclosing this here yesterday, Dr Villoo Morawala-Patell, Founder, Chairperson & Managing Director of Avesthagen Limited said that our partnership with Limagrain has resulted in the introduction of this alternative plastic material. This was our way of contributing back to the environment we lived in.  As research and innovation was core to Avesthagen, we would not stop here, but continued our work to introduce more environment friendly products, she maintained.

She said that this biodegradable plastic was manufactured using a process unique, from whole cereal grains, mainly wheat, maize and a number of specific Limagrain varieties. The products innovation lied in the combination of cereal fractions with a biodegradable polymer. Unlike the usual non-degradable plastic material, this alternate plastic introduced by Avesthagen and Limagrain, would break down and become compost in a matter of 120 days in industrial composting conditions under the norm EN13432.

Dr. Villoo further elaborated that this innovative biodegradable plastic is India’s first product aimed to curb white pollution and the hazards of environmental pollution. Alternate biodegradable materials were the need of the hour, to curb the unimaginable pollution caused by way of plastic bags and other plastic films which stay in our ecology for hundreds of years strangulating cattle and destroying ecology.

With an annual usage of over 150 million tons of non-degradable plastic, the twentieth century would well be called the “Plastic Age”, he pointed out. Further, as most non-degradable plastic used is from non-renewable resources such as petroleum, our increased consumption of plastic increases our reliance on imported oil as well, added Dr Villoo.

Jagmeet Y. Ghuman