Austrian flexible packaging converter Constantia Flexibles has opened what it claims to be the world’s first plant designed to produce more sustainable and recyclable flexible packaging only, in India.

The official opening of the site will take place in Ahmedabad on 20 November, and the production focus is on the packaging family EcoLam. EcoLam is a mono-PE laminate suitable for a variety of packaging applications and is said to reduce carbon footprint by 32 per cent compared to similar products. It comes in different barrier grades including EcoLam, EcoLamPlus and EcoLamHighPlus.

After a two-year construction period, Constantia Ecoflex Ahmedabad started test runs in September. It has a footprint of 24,500 sqm and employs 50 people, although that number is expected to triple by the second quarter of 2020.

Alexander Baumgartner, chief executive of Constantia Flexibles, said: “We know about our responsibilities towards the industry, the end consumers and – first and foremost – towards the environment. Thus, we are not only focusing on developing more environmentally friendly packaging, we also designed the first plant in the world dedicated to produce sustainable packaging only. The plant named Constantia Ecoflex Ahmedabad is located in Gujarat in India, which is the perfect market to implement such a forward-looking project.”

The Indian government started to put real pressure on the recycling economy in 2016 through its new ‘Plastic Waste Management Rules’, which, among other things, prescribes to scrap single-use plastics like pouches by 2022. Another part of the new regulations is the phasing out of non-recyclable multi-layered plastics.