Flipkart eliminates single-use plastic packaging in its supply chain

Flipkart, an e-commerce marketplace, announced on Wednesday that it has eliminated all single-use plastic packaging used across its fulfillment centers in India, fulfilling its public commitment to transition to plastic-free packaging by 2021.

Hemant Badri, Senior Vice-President and Head of Supply Chain at Flipkart, said the company places great emphasis on sustainable and responsible business practices.

“Moving towards 100 percent single-use plastic elimination is one of the significant steps we have taken towards fulfilling our commitment to creating a sustainable ecosystem,” he added.

This has been accomplished in over 70 facilities where Flipkart has implemented sustainable alternatives such as eco-friendly paper shreds, recycled paper bags in place of poly pouches, and carton waste shredded material in place of bubble wraps and 2 ply roll.

Meanwhile, the company has also ensured full compliance with all extended producer responsibility regulations throughout this process (EPR).

The e-commerce firm further stated that it is now actively working with seller partners who fulfill customer orders directly from their locations to educate and enable them to transition to alternative materials.

According to Flipkart, it has already reduced the use of single-use plastic packaging in seller fulfillment by 27%.

Furthermore, Flipkart is actively collaborating with the ecosystem to determine how it can implement other initiatives to create a more circular economy for plastics, allowing the entire ecosystem to move toward a more sustainable future.

Other key initiatives by Flipkart include ‘E-commerce ready packaging,' which allows the company to ship close to 15% of products without adding a second layer of packaging, included responsible forestry and sourcing, plastic-free returns in the supply chain, and sellers as well.

Flipkart has also pledged to transition its city logistics network entirely to electric vehicles by 2030. Since it allegedly focused on resource efficiency in its operations by increasing the use of renewable energy and executing projects to improve water management, waste management, and overall energy productivity across its strategic facilities such as fulfillment centers and data centers.

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