19/06/2026
In his book Plastics Recycling, Mr. Jeevaraj Pillai, Whole Time Director, President – Flexible Packaging and New Product Development, and Director – Sustainability, UFlex, highlights a powerful idea at the heart of the circular economy: Materials should not be treated as waste after a single use, but as valuable resources that can continue creating value through multiple lifecycles.
His perspective underscores how recycling plays a critical role in:
- Preserving the value embedded in materials
- Extending product lifecycles and reducing waste
- Lowering dependence on virgin resources
- Supporting more efficient and responsible resource utilization
- Accelerating the transition from a linear to a circular economy
As sustainability moves from aspiration to action, rethinking how materials are designed, used, recovered, and recycled will be essential to building resilient and resource-efficient systems for the future.
The path to circularity begins with recognizing that waste is not the end of a material's journey—it is the beginning of its next life.