ISLAMABAD: Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) and Roshan Packages Limited (RPL) here on Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate in the promotion of circularity and recycling in product packaging to reduce the environmental footprint of businesses and consumption.

Both the institutions will jointly organize capacity development initiatives on Governance and Leadership, joint research, CSR activities and professional training for executives and senior management in the corporate, development institutions.

In this regard, both institutions also agreed on holding national and international training, workshops, study tours and business development models to reduce the volume of single-use plastics and other products, said a news release.

Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Executive Director SDPI reiterated the SDPI’s commitment to providing continued support to the public and private sectors in achieving and strengthening circularity by bringing research and evidence-backed international best practices in Pakistan.

He said that unfortunately, the country transitioned from a circular economic model in the past to a high-consumption and waste-based model. He stressed that circularity was a generic concept in Pakistan and South Asia which had existed in the informal waste collection and recycling sector and said that the uptake of the circular economic model is not a far-fetched idea.

Tayyab Aijaz, the CEO of Roshan Packages Limited, said that the journey of Roshan Packages started with high-quality packaging for export products and later the company introduced flexible packaging.

He informed that Roshan Packages was initiating a recycle plant where wastepaper would be recycled to form paper and packaging to reduce waste and the plant would be operated on clean energy to achieve environmental efficiency.—APP

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023