Allianz India GCCs recover over 1,000 tonnes of plastic waste from Kerala’s waterways

Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 8 (PTI) Allianz Services India and Allianz Technology India on Wednesday said they had recovered more than 1,000 tonnes of plastic waste from rivers and waterways in Kerala’s capital over the past four years. Both firms are the Global Capability Centres of the Allianz Group in India and recovered the waste as part of their ‘Plastic Waste-Free Rivers Project’—a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative, a press release said. It said the waste recovered was equivalent to removing 50 million plastic bottles from the city’s waterbodies. If placed end to end, the bottles would stretch 12,000 km, longer than India’s coastline. It said that, since the launch of the initiative in 2022, the project has been entirely funded by the two Allianz Group GCCs, which have together invested more than Rs 5 crore from their CSR funds. The announcement of the achievement was made at an event here attended by several Kerala ministers. State Minister for Industries, IT, AI and Startups P K Kunhalikutty, who spoke on the occasion, congratulated the GCCs on their achievement. He said GCCs in Kerala were not merely engines of economic growth, but also responsible corporate citizens that invest in the communities and ecosystems that sustain them. “This milestone also reinforces a powerful message to global investors—Kerala’s industrial growth is inseparable from its commitment to environmental excellence,” the minister was quoted as saying in the release. State Minister for Water Resources Mons Joseph commended the project for its sustained and systematic approach. “I urge corporates, local bodies and citizens alike to draw inspiration from this model,” he added. State Minister for Local Self Government K M Shaji, in his speech, called upon panchayats, municipalities and the Corporation of Thiruvananthapuram to draw inspiration from this model and deepen their collaboration with similar initiatives. Barbara Karuth-Zelle, Member of the Board of Management responsible for Allianz Services and Allianz Technology and Group COO of Allianz SE, said that reaching the 1,000-tonne milestone was incredibly meaningful for them, as “every piece of plastic removed from rivers is one less harming the ocean”. “This is about more than cleanup. It is about lasting change, creating jobs, raising awareness, and transforming how communities manage waste. But we are only at the beginning. Preventing plastic pollution at scale requires deeper collaboration, systemic solutions and long-term commitment, because caring for tomorrow means protecting the ecosystems that sustain life today,” she said. The ‘Plastic Waste-Free Rivers Project’ deploys low-cost floating barriers called ‘TrashBooms’ to intercept plastic waste in rivers and urban waterways, the release said. Currently, 15 TrashBoom systems operate at critical sites, such as Thampanoor thodu, Ulloor thodu, Pattom thodu, Thekkinakara canal, Amayizhanchan thodu, Karamana river, Killi river, Kariyil thodu and Thettiyar canal, collecting and removing plastic waste daily, it said. The two GCCs are running the initiative in association with NGO partners Thanal Trust and Sustera Foundation, using technology from Germany-based Plastic Fischer, it added. Besides cleaning up waterbodies, the project also provides local employment and is supported by three Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) at Injakkal, Venpalavattom and Vallakadavu. These are managed by Plastic Fischer’s team of 23 professionals responsible for recovery, transportation, segregation and shipping, the release said. The non-recyclable plastic collected from the waterbodies is transported to the Thiruvananthapuram MRFs and subsequently co-processed at the plants of Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited in Tamil Nadu, while recyclable plastic is repurposed locally, including into trash bins installed at Veli Beach, it said. The project has earned endorsement from the UN Ocean Decade and is now being replicated in Mangaluru, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kanpur and Varanasi, the release said. It said that, in Thiruvananthapuram, 79 per cent of debris in major waterways is plastic, and that the Karamana and Killi rivers have the highest microplastic densities in the region. “Without intervention, plastic is projected to outweigh fish in the world’s oceans by 2050, a stark reality that makes this milestone all the more significant,” the release said. PTI HMP SSK