Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray inaugurates used PET bottle reverse vending machine

Shri Aaditya Thackeray, Shiv Sena leader and an environmental enthusiast, recently inaugurated Reliance Industries Ltd.’s (RIL) post-consumer PET bottle reverse vending machine near the Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai, India.

One of the largest recyclers of used PET bottles in India, RIL started this initiative to keep the city and country clean and to prevent PET bottles from ending up in landfills, said the news release.

RIL has developed a plan to install many more such machines at Reliance SMART and Sahakari Bhandar stores in Mumbai before World Environment Day on June 5, 2018. To encourage people to bring empty PET bottles and put them into the vending machines, the machines dispense discount coupons when a bottle is deposited in the machine, where it is shredded.

RIL will collect the shredded PET bottles and send the material to its PET recycling facilities at Barahanki, Uttar Pradesh and Hoshiapur, Punjab, where the world’s greenest Recron GreenGold fibers are being manufactured.

Reliance Industries, the owner of brand R|Elan GreenGold, is one of the largest recyclers of PET bottles in India, recycling 2.2 billion bottles a year. The R|Elan GreenGold fabric, which is made from recycled PET, substantially reduces the emission of greenhouse gases and cuts down on water usage, as well. The fabric is made from pre-dyed fibers that do not require much water. The little water that is required is 90% recycled.

RIL is the only company in the world that has built a complete circular process—from creation of PET resin for bottles and collection of discarded bottles to converting them to an eco-friendly polyester fiber, which, in turn, is converted into a fabric for the manufacture of high-fashion apparel.