About Asian Paints

Since its humble beginning back in 1942, Asian Paints has come a long way where it is not just the
number one paint company in India, but also the 9th largest paint (decorative + industrial) company
globally with its footprint in 60+ countries across the globe. It is the most preferred brand in India for
paint for over 50+ years and has a strong footprint in India with a network of 70,000+ dealers.

At Asian Paints Limited (APL), we partner with our consumers in their journey for creating beautiful
spaces and help them give expression to their creativity. Driven by a vision to beautify, preserve and
transform all spaces and objects, Asian Paints has also forayed into the home improvement and décor
segment offering bath and modular kitchen products. The company also introduced lightings,
furnishings, and furniture in its portfolio. It also offers ‘Beautiful Home Services’ – an exclusive end-
to-end solution that provides consumers a personalized interior design service with professional
execution to create their dream homes.

Asian Paints Packaging Overview

Metal

Tin Plate
/ CRCA
Plastics

PPCP/

HDPE Carton

Kraft /
Duplex

Asian Paints manufactures a wide range of paints for decorative and industrial use. In the decorative
paint domain, it has products to offer for all kinds of surfaces – exterior wall, interior wall, wood,
metal, etc. It also offers waterproofing products, wall coverings, and adhesives for various
applications.

Packaging plays a key role in keeping the product in its original form which is essential to deliver on
the promises made to the customer and keep the product safe at all stages of transit in the supply
chain. At the same time, it can be a key differentiator with respect to customer perception and
attractiveness vis-à-vis competition.
Materials Used in Paint Packaging

Asian Paints

Water Based Solvent Based

Polypropylene High Density

Copolymer Polyethylene Tinplate Steel
(PPCP) (HDPE)

PPCP forms the bulk of our consumption. Polyproplene is used across various industries and mainly
two grades are widely prevalent i.e. homopolymer and copolymer. Although the two grades exhibit
quite a few similarities, there are many differences in appearance and performance as well.

Co-polymer is a high impact grade vs homopolymer. This is a critical performance parameter for paint
pails so that they do not crack/break when handled multiple times at various stages of the supply
chain.

Segregation is imperative, since these two grades cannot be mixed while manufacturing plastic pails
for Asian Paints.

Recycling and Our Journey Thus Far…

Being an environmentally conscious organization and an industry leader, Asian Paints has always been
proactive, going beyond statutory requirements whilst taking decisions that can impact the
environment.

While mandatory regulations shall come into force only from 2025-26, we have in collaboration with
early entrants in the recycled PPCP (RCPP) industry, introduced RCPP in 2015 and over the years, it
has been extended to all brands with gradual increase in the quantum of RCPP in the pails.

Although this has given APL a head-start in reducing plastic footprint, it has also brought forth
challenges that await in the journey ahead given the audacious target of significantly enhancing
recycled component in plastic packaging.
Unlike the success story of PET recycling, which is well established and all of us contribute towards,
RCPP pails pose a unique challenge - The pails just don’t seem to flow back to the recyclers.

In India where ragpickers do an excellent job of picking and form part of the recycling network for PET
are seldom able to lay their hands on used paint pails in garbage dumps and landfills.

After prolonged multiple alternate usage - such as storage of foodgrains, water storage, street
vendors for their storage and many more purposes, the pail upon reaching its end of life gets sold as
scrap to the kabadiwalas.

Current Packaging Procurement Model of APL

Asian Paints has plastic pail vendors close to its paint manufacturing facilities. These vendors procure
PPCP and RCPP from the open market and use it to manufacture our plastic pails which are expected
to meet a certain quality criteria defined by APL.

Asian Paints has also entered into a tie-up with a Bangalore based RCPP supplier who collects plastic
pails in partnership with local self help groups and makes RCPP which is then procured by these pail
vendors.

Over the last year or so, other players like Reliance, Indian Oil Corporation have also ventured into
this space and are working on establishing a viable and reliable collection mechanism.

Government Regulations

Given the rising solid waste management challenges, there have been a slew of policies announced
by governments across the globe. In India too, for plastic pails which fall under the rigid plastics
category, the norms have been defined as follows:

As per PWM (Plastic Waste Management) rules, 2016; brand owners shall ensure use of
recycled plastic in plastic packaging as per table below:

Financial Year 2025-26 2026-27 2027-28 2028-29 &

onwards

Rigid Plastics 30 40 50 60

(% of manufactured plastic for the year)

Growing Demand

Due to the upcoming regulatory norms which shall apply to the industry from 2025-26 (30% of
manufactured plastic for the year) and coupled with our own volume growth, we expect the RCPP
demand to multiply over 13 times over current demand. Subsequent years would call for higher
RCPP usage as per the table above.

Given our audacious recycling targets and the need for all brand owners to comply with statutory
requirements, we foresee multifold increase in RCPP demand due to following challenges:

1. Strong secondary reuse market hindering the reverse flow of pails

2. Fledgling reverse supply chain makes it extremely difficult to recollect the paint/lubricant
pails.
3. Added complication of segregation of plastic articles (copolymer vs homopolymer).

Question:

Propose a commercially viable model that Asian Paints should adopt to meet the recycling target
keeping in mind the logistical aspects.