Ganesha Ecosphere Ltd. is a pioneer in India in the manufacture of recycled polyester staple fibre (RPSF) and yarn from PET bottle scrap. With almost three decades in the industry, it has emerged as one of the leading PET recycling companies in the country.
With around 25 per cent market share, GESL recycles more than 4.4 billion bottles annually. Started in 1987 by Mr. Shyam Sunder Sharma, now its Chairman & Managing Director of the company, the company, whose eco-friendly products are consumed by downstream industries, is engaged in the manufacture of textiles, functional textiles and fillings.
Ganesha Ecosphere posted strong results during 2015-16 despite the changing macro-economic scenario. Understanding the steep decline in polyester and crude oil prices, the company showcased its true spirit by recording 20 per cent increase in production and sustainable rise in revenues and profitability of four per cent and eight per cent respectively.
The company has plans to raise its installed capacity by setting up another RPSF production line with capacity of 21,000 tons per annum (TPA) at its unit located at Temra, Bilaspur, Rampur district in UP, raising the consolidated RPSF capacity to 1,08,600 TPA.
Mr. Shyam Sunder Sharma says: “At Ganesha, we continue to sustain our market leadership backed by our core competencies – quality product, wide product range and greater operational efficiencies. Our timely and strategic investments in capacities and technology have enabled us to capitalize on the market opportunities and derive tangible and intangible value. We continue to forge strong relationships with our clients to drive value for them on a long-term basis”.
Ganesha Ecosphere successfully completed the first full year of operations of its expanded RPSF capacity at the Bilaspur unit. With this achievement, the company is now well positioned to rebalance its supplies aligning to demand variations. With an expanded capacity of more than 21,000 TPA, the new unit contributed 22 per cent of the total production of the company.
The proposed roll-out of the GST reform is another shot in the arm for several manufacturing industries, including GESL. The new tax system will make the market more transparent and provide a level playing field to organized players. With soaring cotton prices due to lower production as well as disadvantageous position of cotton in the GST regime by taking off its tax-exempt status, the man-made fibre industry will get a level playing field, and demand for polyester products will increase due to competitive pricing.
While the PET industry provides several benefits, it also brings with it drawbacks that pose threat to external environment. Today 95 per cent of plastic packaging material worth $80-120 billion is annually lost to the economy after first use. The recycling rate of plastics in general is even lower than for plastic packaging, and both are far below the global recycling rates for paper (58%) and iron and steel (70-90%). PET, used in beverage bottles, has a higher recycling rate than any other type of plastic, but even this success story is only a modest one. Globally, close to half of PET is not collected for recycling.
Ganesha Ecosphere nearly collected 79,000 tonnes of PET wastes in 2015-16. This translated into recycling more than 4.4 billion PET bottles (a 17 per cent increase over the previous year). With its robust collection centre network across the country, the company ensures steady raw material supply and saving valuable landfill space.
In addition, Ganesh Ecosphere also has an integrated supply chain network with institutional collection centres like bottlers, hotels and corporates among others. The integrated value-chain of streamlined supply and effective production, provides us with a competitive advantage. With increase in usage of PET bottles across several downstream industries, the company is hoping to increase capacity utilisation levels.
Ganesha Ecosphere started investing in building capacities since 1995 and expanding its PET recycling capacity from 6000 TPA to 87,600 TPA by the end of March 2016. The company’s integrated forward yarn spinning capacity stands at 7,200 TPA. Coupled with yarn dyeing / texturising capacity of 3000 TPA, this ensures a cumulative capacity of 97,800 TPA.
With capital investments of more than Rs. 210 crores in the last five years, Ganesha Ecosphere has created an integrated infrastructure for making products for key downstream industries through raw material that helps create a cleaner, greener environment.
The company has three recycling units in India – Kanpur and Bilaspur, both of UP and Rudrapur in Uttaranchal – with a total installed capacity to produce 87,600 TPA of recycled polyester staple fibre (RPSF) and 7,200 TPA of recycled polyester spun yarn (RPSY) by recycling PET waste.
Ganesha’s modern PET waste washing and recycling facilities ensure the recycling of waste in an environment and people-friendly manner.