Ideas To Impact – PLASTINDIA 2026, A First-Ever Zero Waste Exhibition
Leadership Spotlight with Mr. Ravish Kamath, President, PlastIndia Foundation by Ginu Joseph Explained, (Text by Anagha Salvi Extract from Modern Plastics TV)
‘‘PlastIndia 2026, as we all know, we are going to have one of the world’s biggest plastic exhibitions in New Delhi at the Bharat Mandapam between the 5th to 10th February 2026. This event is eagerly awaited by the industry. We have a lot of new things coming up during this exhibition.’’
Tell us about Plast India Foundation and its activities?
It was established way back in 1987 with a combination of seven founder members and two constituent members which came in later on. The seven founder members are mainly the Plastics Export Council of India, All India Plastics Manufacturers Association, IPF from Calcutta, Gujarat State Manufacturers Association from Gujarat, IPI from Mumbai, CIPET, OPPI, the Organization of Plastic Processes of India, later we have added two constituency members which is the CPMA, this is the Chemicals and Petrochemicals Manufacturers Association and the PMMAI which is the Plastic Machinery Manufacturers Association. With this, we have the entire network of the plastic industry starting from raw materials, finished goods as well as the machineries. So, the entire PlastIndia Foundation has a representation from each part of the plastic industry.
What are the objectives of Plast India Foundation?
The objectives are very clear, with all these associations together, we are looking at trying to find a way in which we can do better for the plastic industry. In our interest, what we do is we are working very closely with the Ministry of Chemicals and Petrochemicals on various issues which are related to the industry. We also work with the Ministry of Commerce and Industries to take the issues which are related to the industries to their knowledge. We have interactions with them and we are working with them to do something better for the industry.
What is the happening in PlastIndia Foundation which everybody knows it is PlastIndia 2026?
As far as PlastIndia 2026, as we all know, we are going to have one of the world’s biggest plastic exhibitions in New Delhi at the Bharat Mandapam between the 5th to 10th February 2026. This event is eagerly awaited by the industry. We have a lot of new things coming up during this exhibition. We have more than 2000 exhibitors across India and approximately about 500 foreign exhibitors. The total area is around about 540,000 square meters in Bharat Mandapam. We also have the Convention Center at Bharat Mandapam, we have lined up a lot of new things during this exhibition.
The first and foremost is the zero waste exhibition. It will probably be the first in the world, first in the country where we will have a zero waste exhibition where every gram of waste which is being collected during the exhibition time will be disposed responsibly and ensuring that it doesn’t enter into the landfills.
In continuation, we also have the global CEO meet where we will have more than 150 CEOs attending this seminar where the issues of the industries will be discussed. We are expecting the Honourable Minister of Commerce, Priyush Goyalji to be there and also Shri Nikhil Meswani, Executive Director of Reliance Industries Ltd., amongst the chief guests of this function. So the industry issues will be discussed for about three hours and solutions to a majority of the problems could probably be looked at.
Could you please tell us about the current statistics of the industry?
The current plastic industry size is estimated to be approximately about 4 lakh crores and this is growing at a pace of approximately 12 to 15 percent per annum. In this, we also have exports worth about 12.5 million or almost about let us say 1 lakh and 10,000 crores which is happening out of the country in which approximately 50 percent of that is the finished products. Exports of the finished goods and this is also growing at a rapid pace of 8 to 10 percent.
We are talking about the Plastic and environment, what is your view on this?
As far as the environment is concerned, we are aware that the most important issues are with regarding to the management of the food waste, the EV waste and also the plastics waste. Currently, almost 90 percent of the waste which is being generated by the plastic industries are recycled. Hence, in my assumption apart from the fact that there is a little bit of an impact from the single-use plastics, the rest of the plastics are being disposed responsibly or at least recycled responsibly.
Could you please tell us about Plast India University?
PlastIndia University was established in the year 2016 in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts Lowel at Vapi, Gujarat and it is the first university for the plastics and polymers. We have flagship B. Tech plastics and polymer engineering and computer science and engineering also, integrated management courses and also, we are focusing on the research in plastics, technology, biodegradables.
What message you want to give to the Indian plastic industry as such?
As mentioned earlier, the Indian plastic industry is growing at a rapid pace of about 10 to 12 percent per annum. So, there is a lot of opportunity for the people in the country, the people in the plastic industry to expand their reach with new products and with new technology covering every aspect of plastics, starting from packaging, agriculture, Medicare as well as the environment. So, we are looking at a very good growth in the plastic industry and we are hoping that people will come and invest in the plastic industry.
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