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Incubated at Columbia Business School and registered in India in 2013, Hyderabad-headquartered Banyan Nation has been a pioneering name in the circular economy and a leading player in India’s fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) bottle-to-bottle recycling industry. The company was founded by Mani Vajipey and Raj Madangopal with the goal of addressing India’s waste management crisis through a recycled alternative.
Mani and Raj recognized the looming plastic menace even before the United Nations initiated a global process to help individual countries understand the issue of plastic waste and take responsibility for mitigating it using modern technologies and available substitutes. The establishment of Banyan Nation dates back to two years before the Paris Agreement was adopted by 185 nations in 2015, and three years before the historic plastic pact was signed in 2016 under the aegis of the United Nations.
rPE and rPP resins
Banyan Nation has been a leading name in the recycling of used flexible packaging materials and a producer of recycled polyethylene (rPE) and recycled polypropylene (rPP). Until recently, the company focused solely on recycling rigid plastics, primarily high-density polyethylene (HDPE). However, its diversification into recycling used flexible packaging materials has marked a significant step forward in India’s circular economy and helped reduce the irresponsible dumping of used plastics.
As one of India’s first vertically integrated plastics recycling companies, Banyan Nation has pioneered the circular economy in polyolefins (PE and PP) in the country. Through its world-class recycling facility and human-contact-safe primary packaging resins, the company has enabled several large multinational brands to transition from linear to circular manufacturing models.
Banyan Nation has developed a blueprint for circular plastic recycling—integrating with informal sector collectors and aggregators across India, leveraging proprietary technology, and partnering with leading brands. The company has demonstrated that plastic recycling can be socially and environmentally responsible while remaining economically viable.
Growth journey
After registering the company in 2013, Mani and Raj jointly developed a blueprint to integrate informal waste workers through a data intelligence platform. In 2017, Banyan Nation achieved a breakthrough in cleaning technology, enabling the successful removal of paint from automotive components and the production of Tata Motors bumpers made from recycled plastic. The company’s partnership with French cosmetics giant L’Oréal on shampoo bottle recycling put Banyan Nation on the global map.
In 2018, Banyan became the first Indian company to win at the Circulars Awards at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. This prestigious recognition helped the company secure multi-year contracts with Unilever and Reckitt, and raise Series A funding of US$ 0.8 million (approximately ₹6 crore) from Impact Investment Exchange (IIX) and Shujog. The funding enabled Banyan Nation to scale up operations by strengthening its waste recycling supply chain and building a network of brands across the FMCG, pharmaceutical, and other sectors. The company subsequently secured several rounds of funding from various investors, helping it expand to a global scale.
Between 2015 and 2018, the company solved a series of technological challenges in plastic washing and recycling in India. In addition to pre-sorting, Banyan Nation developed a hot-wash technology to eliminate surface contaminants, introduced a system to stabilize and normalize color across production batches, added deodorization to polyolefins, and set up a water recycling and management system to minimize groundwater depletion.
Both Unilever and Reckitt certified Banyan Nation’s recycling plant and its post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials for commercial use. This led to the launch of Surf Excel, Comfort, Tresemmé, Sunsilk, Harpic, and Dettol bottles containing 10–30% of Banyan’s PCR content.
In 2021, the company introduced several innovations to enhance PCR quality, including improvements in color stability and polymer property consistency. In 2023, Banyan Nation reached a major milestone: recycling 1 billion plastic bottles using its proprietary technology. This achievement enabled the company to raise Series B funding to expand its capacity to 50,000 tonnes per annum (TPA) by 2025. Furthermore, the company managed to recycle an additional 0.5 billion bottles within a single year—half the time it took to achieve the first billion—marking a major leap in scale and efficiency.
Building supply channel
Reports indicate that the company spent approximately five years since its inception building a supply channel for recyclables. “It was a unique challenge for the company to bring informal waste collectors together to form a sustainable supply chain. Consequently, our biggest achievement was ensuring a secure supply of raw materials. Ragpickers, maids, servants, security guards—or virtually anyone—collect plastic waste and sell it to local kabadiwallas (waste dealers), who typically serve around 250 households. These dealers then segregate the plastic waste and sell it to larger aggregators. Banyan Nation has opened the door for all such suppliers,” the report said.
Later, the company focused on developing advanced recycling technology and onboarding major brands. It chose to work with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, which already had a well-established collection chain, and concentrated primarily on HDPE and polypropylene bottles from laundry detergents and toilet cleaners—materials that are more difficult to collect and recycle. Banyan Nation uses a mix of technologies to produce recycled granules, including Indian-made artificial intelligence (AI)-based sorting machines, a proprietary custom-built washing system, and both European and Indian extruders.
With its innovative approach and sustained efforts, the company now produces 100% recycled granules from HDPE and polypropylene bottles, which brands can incorporate into their packaging to meet Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) compliance requirements. The company’s unique selling proposition (USP) lies in the consistent quality of its recycled granules, which meet safety standards set by both European and U.S. regulators. Banyan Nation currently works with brands collectively valued at over US$ 100 billion.
Capacity expansion
Last year, the company envisaged a capital expenditure of Rs 200 crore for capacity expansion, aimed at setting up a greenfield or brownfield plastic recycling project. It applied to the Telangana government for additional land to establish a new recycling facility in the state. At present, the company operates a 15,000-tonne-per-annum recycling facility in the Pashamylaram Industrial Area in Hyderabad and plans to set up new facilities to increase its total capacity to 45,000 tonnes per annum.
With a current workforce of approximately 200 employees, the company proposes to generate additional employment opportunities for 500 people in various capacities. Banyan Nation’s efforts align with the government’s vision of promoting sustainability and supporting innovative enterprises that contribute to the state’s economic and environmental goals. The company currently reports an annual turnover of Rs 100 crore.
DILIP KUMAR JHA
Editor
dilip.jha@polymerupdate.com
